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Hailed as ‘one of the greatest successes in the history of space exploration’, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission marked the first time humans have successfully landed a space probe on a comet. While Rosetta made major headlines in 2014 when its lander, called Philae, touched down on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, the dedicated team of scientists and engineers behind the mission had laboured for 20 years on its innovative design. In this short documentary, Stephan Ulamec of the German Aerospace Center details the patience, inevitable uncertainty and nerve-wracking anticipation that accompanies landing a spacecraft on an object hurling through space at more than 11 miles per second, 300 million miles away.
Video by Lonelyleap and BBC Future
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Cognition and intelligence
What’s this buzz about bees having culture? Inside a groundbreaking experiment
8 minutes
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Earth science and climate
The only man permitted in Bhutan’s sacred mountains chronicles humanity’s impact
22 minutes
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Cosmology
The Indian astronomer whose innovative work on black holes was mocked at Cambridge
13 minutes
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Astronomy
Seven years later, what can we make of our first confirmed interstellar visitor?
59 minutes
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Physics
Is it possible to design a shape to roll along any fixed path?
4 minutes
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Biotechnology
The two women behind a world-changing scientific discovery
14 minutes
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Medicine
Why surgery and barbering were one occupation in the Middle Ages
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Space exploration
Mind-bending speed is the only way to reach the stars – here are three ways to do it
5 minutes
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Biography and memoir
As her world unravels, Pilar wonders at the ‘sacred geometry’ that gives it structure
20 minutes