"Hello, world": Rosetta spacecraft wakes for comet-chasing mission

[unhappycamper]

http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-rosetta-comet-chaser-wakes-20140120,0,1437189.story



European Space Agency technicians celebrate after receiving a signal from the Rosetta spacecraft that it had emerged from a nearly three-year sleep to resume its comet-tracking mission.

"Hello, world": Rosetta spacecraft wakes for comet-chasing mission
By Carol J. Williams
January 20, 2014, 4:31 p.m.

Nervous anticipation gave way to jubilation on Monday when the European Space Agency's Rosetta comet-chaser spacecraft emerged from almost three years of induced, energy-saving sleep to report it was ready to carry out its history-making $1 billion mission.

Rosetta alerted scientists at the ESA mission control center in Darmstadt, Germany, that it was awake and ready to rev up and rendezvous with the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet in August.

The message sent from the spacecraft still 5.6 million miles from its comet destination reached Earth at 7:18 p.m. Central European Time (11:18 a.m. PST) and triggered a preprogrammed tweet of "Hello, world!" in several languages.

Confirmation that its 31-month induced sleep had ended on schedule had been expected nearly 40 minutes earlier, making for some tense waiting among the mission specialists, the ESA said in its report on the wake-up call.

[Baclava]

1. be careful V'ger ...you don't know what's down there