Philae First Landed on Comet

Philae is a robotic European Space Agency lander that accompanied the Rosetta spacecraft until its designated landing on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, more than ten years after departing Earth. The lander is named after Philae Island in the Nile, where an obelisk was found and used, along with the Rosetta Stone, to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics.

The safe, if precarious, touchdown of the lander gives scientists a unique chance to ride onboard a comet and study from the surface what happens as its activity ramps up as it gets closer to the sun. The first images beamed back from the lander’s descent revealed a dramatic landscape of pits and precipices, craters and boulders. However, there have been gaps in its radio link with the orbiting Rosetta mothership. 


On 12 November 2014, Philae achieved the first-ever controlled touchdown on a comet nucleus.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philae_(spacecraft)
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/nov/12/rosetta-mission-philae-historic-landing-comet

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