Rosetta to finish its slow descent to comet’s surface Friday morning

Livestream of tonight's festivities.

It's time for Europe's comet probe, Rosetta, to die. At 4:48pm ET Thursday, the spacecraft fired its thruster for 208 seconds, setting Rosetta on course for a controlled descent to the surface of its comet on Friday morning at approximately 7:20am ET.

In accord with the spacecraft's descent to the surface, the European Space Agency will provide live coverage via Livestream about an hour before the landing time. The live video will feature status updates from mission controllers live from the European Space Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germany.

The spacecraft arrived at the Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, which is about 4km on its longest side, in 2014. It became the first mission to orbit around a comet and, with its small Philae lander, the first to touch down on a comet’s surface. Now the main probe will follow Philae down to the surface.

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