Comet probe Philae contacts earth station; ‘doing very well’
Paris
Europe's robot lab Philae contacted earth station on Friday in its journey towards the Sun on the back of a comet and is "doing very well", the German Aerospace Center (DLR) said.
"Among other things, we have received updated status information," Michael Maibaum, a systems engineer at the DLR Lander Control Center in Cologne.
"The contact has confirmed that Philae is doing very well," it added.
The latest contact lasted 19 minutes and is the third time that Philae is calling home since it landed on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on November 12.
On Friday, Philae transmitted 185 data packets back to Earth between 1320 and 1339 GMT.
The mission seeks to unlock the long-held secrets of comets including information on how the Solar System was formed.
After landing on the comet, Philae had used its stored battery power to send home reams of data before going into standby mode.
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