The interplanetary station Rosetta performed the third key maneuver and photographed the comet Churyumova-Gerasimenko

Only a few weeks left before the meeting of the Rosetta station with the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. According to the plan, the station should meet with the comet as early as August, but to successfully meet the station with the comet, with the subsequent release of the Philae probe (the probe is on board the station) onto the surface of the space body, the station’s speed should decrease significantly.

As mentioned earlier, three key and several auxiliary, if I may say so, maneuvers are planned for speed reduction. A total of three key maneuvers (done) and 5 “secondary” (to be done) were planned, with a reset of the station’s relative speed (relative to the comet) from 775 meters per second to about a meter per second. During the third speed reset, a maneuver that took place on June 18, the speed was reset to 88.7 meters per second, while the station’s engines operated for more than two hours, 136 minutes.
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By the way, Rosetta already "sees" the comet, here's a snapshot taken as early as June 4th.



The distance between the station and the comet at this time was about 430 thousand kilometers. Now this distance is twice less, and continues to be reduced.


Video about the mission of the Rosetta station and the model of the landing of the probe on the surface of the comet.

Hopefully, the station will perform the remaining 5 small maneuvers successfully, and the Philae probe will land on the surface of comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This is how it might look:







Images taken from here .