What is the name of the mother craft of Philae, the probe currently sitting on Comet 67P?
Philae (spacecraft) Philae (spacecraft) Philae ( or ) is a robotic European Space Agency lander that accompanied the "Rosetta" spacecraft until it separated to land on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, ten years and eight months after departing Earth. On 12 November 2014, "Philae" touched down on the comet, but it bounced when its anchoring harpoons failed to deploy and a thruster designed to hold the probe to the surface did not fire. After bouncing off the surface twice, "Philae" achieved the first-ever "soft" (nondestructive) landing on a comet nucleus, although the lander's final, uncontrolled touchdown left it in a non-optimal location and orientation. Despite
Philae (spacecraft) the lander had bounced. It began performing scientific measurements while slowly moving away from the comet and coming back down, confusing the science team. Further analysis showed that it bounced twice. "Philae" first contact with the comet occurred at 15:34:04 UTC SCET. The probe rebounded off the comet's surface at and rose to an altitude of approximately . For perspective, had the lander exceeded about , it would have escaped the comet's gravity. After detecting the touchdown, "Philae" reaction wheel was automatically powered off, resulting in its momentum being transferred back into the lander. This caused the vehicle to begin