Rosetta's Comet-Landing Probe Philae Healthy En Route to Target

Artist's concept of the European Space Agency's Philae lander on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Philae touched down on the comet on Nov. 12, 2014; it may actually have bounced off after the initial attempt and come back down again. (Image credit: ESA/ATG medialab )

After a nail-biting silence, European scientists are back in touch with a probe currently descending to the face of a comet speeding through deep space. As expected, European Space Agency (ESA) officials regained contact with the Rosetta mission's Philae lander at 6:07 a.m. EST (1107 GMT) today (Nov. 12) after the probe was released from its Rosetta mothership earlier in the morning.

ESA's mission control room erupted in cheers when operators saw that Philae was back in touch with Rosetta, which relays the 220-pound (100 kilogram) probe's information to Earth. Scientists are expecting to learn if Philae successfully touched down on the surface of Comet 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko by around 11:02 a.m. EST (1602 GMT) today. [Watch ESA's Philae landing webcast live on Space.com]

Officials are expecting to have pictures of Philae's descent later this morning, so check Space.com's comet landing complete coverage page to see them when they are released.

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Miriam Kramer

Miriam Kramer joined Space.com as a staff writer in December 2012. Since then, she has floated in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight, felt the pull of 4-Gs in a trainer aircraft and watched rockets soar into space from Florida and Virginia. She also serves as Space.com's lead space entertainment reporter, and enjoys all aspects of space news, astronomy and commercial spaceflight. Miriam has also presented space stories during live interviews with Fox News and other TV and radio outlets. She originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee where she and her family would take trips to dark spots on the outskirts of town to watch meteor showers every year. She loves to travel and one day hopes to see the northern lights in person. You can follow Miriam on Twitter and Google+.