After
12 years of hurtling through space in pursuit of a comet, the Rosetta
probe ended its mission Friday with a slow-motion crash onto the icy
surface of the alien world it was sent out to study.
Mission controllers lost contact with the probe, as expected, after it hit the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko at 1039 GMT (6:39 a.m. EDT) Friday, the European Space Agency said.
"Farewell Rosetta, you've done the job," said mission manager Patrick Martin. "That is space science at its best."