Lucianne Walkowicz, astrophysicistpublished at 15:40 Greenwich Mean Time 12 November 2014
tweets:, external Breathlessly waiting to hear back from @Philae2014! Curse you, 28 min light travel time! #CometLanding
Summary
Confirmation received of the first ever comet landing
Successful touchdown of the landing robot Philae marks climax of 10 year, 6.4 billion km journey
Esa confirms the harpoons designed to attach Philae to the comet did not fire, but its smaller screws appear to have dug into the surface
Philae was released at 08:35 GMT and took seven hours to reach comet 67P
Pictures have been received of the descent in progress - more are now eagerly awaited from the comet surface
Live video from the European Space Agency's operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany
Lucianne Walkowicz, astrophysicistpublished at 15:40 Greenwich Mean Time 12 November 2014
Postpublished at 15:38 Greenwich Mean Time 12 November 2014
David Shukman
Science editor, BBC Newstweets, external: Packed and tense waiting for #CometLanding: reminds me of the last shuttle launch but without a countdown
Waiting gamepublished at 15:37 Greenwich Mean Time 12 November 2014
As a quick reminder - Philae could already have touched down, but we won't know for 28 minutes because of the sheer distance the radio waves have to travel from the comet back to earth.
Get involvedpublished at 15:32 Greenwich Mean Time 12 November 2014
@uglyshirts_ tweets:, external I'm not getting a single thing done at work until @Philae2014 lands or doesn't #cometlanding
The tension mountspublished at 15:29 Greenwich Mean Time 12 November 2014
Stephan Ulamec, head of the lander team, offered the final comments before crossing to the control room to await confirmation - or not - of the landing:
"Our touchdown window has started, the lander in principal is now prepared, every second now we could hit ground!
"It's getting very tense and very exciting now."
Mark Bentley, planetary scientist involved in the missionpublished at 15:27 Greenwich Mean Time 12 November 2014
tweets, external: The touchdown "window" for @Philae2014 opened at 16:22 - so could already be on the ground! Have to wait to hear... #CometLanding
Chris Lintott, astronomer, University of Oxfordpublished at 15:25 Greenwich Mean Time 12 November 2014
tweets:, external How might the detected slow spin of @Philae2014 might affect the landing? It seems to have taken some of the team by surprise #cometlanding
The team behind Philae COSAC - a gas analyser on the landerpublished at 15:23 Greenwich Mean Time 12 November 2014
tweets:, external Piece of cake @Philae2014 ! Just target the green spot ! Go Philae ! #CometLanding
Image source, EsaPostpublished at 15:19 Greenwich Mean Time 12 November 2014
Rebecca Morelle
Science Correspondent, BBC Newstweets:, external Nearly there... Landing window is from 1540 GMT to 1620 GMT... Nerve wracking! Follow live on @BBCNews @BBCWorld #Rosetta #CometLanding
Harpoons versus cometpublished at 15:18 Greenwich Mean Time 12 November 2014
More speculation - we won't know the facts until later - but lander manager Stephan Ulamec says:
"We will have to rely fully on the harpoons at touchdown," because the cold gas thruster on top of the lander is not working.
"We'll need some luck not to land on a boulder or a steep slope."
Where do you rank today's attempt at history?published at 15:11 Greenwich Mean Time 12 November 2014
David Shukman
Science editor, BBC NewsDavid tweets, external from Esa mission control in Darmstadt:
"Astronauts on moon, Mars rovers, Voyagers edging out of solar system, GPS - where would you rank #CometLanding? Just wondering as we wait..."
Get involvedpublished at 15:10 Greenwich Mean Time 12 November 2014
Vic Grout: Thoroughly enjoying this. Was fortunate enough to be in that mission control room in the summer on a visit to Darmstadt. Fingers crossed!
Postpublished at 15:08 Greenwich Mean Time 12 November 2014
Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent, BBC Newstweets, external: Data coming back from those @Philae2014, external instruments that are switched on. The probe is very slowly rotating as it goes down. #CometLanding
Land, drill, bakepublished at 15:04 Greenwich Mean Time 12 November 2014
Dr Holger Sierks is the principle investigator for Rosetta's cameras and explained just how important the lander was.
"It will sample the surface, it will drill into it and analyse the material it sees.
"It even carries it into an oven and bakes the material to 'sniff' the volatiles [chemical elements], to find out if there are organics in there, pre-biotics or building blocks. For us, we'll find volatiles, the water, and even link the water to the water we have here on earth."
Spoof account "Sarcastic Philae"published at 15:01 Greenwich Mean Time 12 November 2014
tweets, external: "Ohh, I look gooooood! #LetsBeHonest"
Image source, ESAGet involvedpublished at 14:57 Greenwich Mean Time 12 November 2014
Grant David: Thank you, thank you. This is my 'moon landing'. To all the people involved in this mission, you are creating major history and you should be so proud. The cherry on the cake.. [soon] I am like a five year old on Christmas Eve! Good luck everybody.
Get involvedpublished at 14:56 Greenwich Mean Time 12 November 2014
Llewellyn Jones: This is absolutely incredible, stuck in the office, but snuck my laptop in with one headphone on to keep an eye on this historic event unfolding. Just amazing what you guys have achieved. Finger crossed it all goes to plan. Looking forward to some amazing photos!
BBC The Sky at Nightpublished at 14:55 Greenwich Mean Time 12 November 2014
Here we go. Our colleagues tweet, external a first screengrab: Breathtaking "@NASASpaceflight: Epic view of Philae on the way to the comet!
Image source, EsaPostpublished at 14:53 Greenwich Mean Time 12 November 2014
More images!!
Get involvedpublished at 14:52 Greenwich Mean Time 12 November 2014
Glyn Jones: Having lived through all of the space age, I'm so impressed with this achievement. I remember Sputnik, dogs, monkeys then Yuri Gagarin, Shepherd and the moon landing. Great day for space exploration.