Rosetta’s Philae comet lander wakes up after seven months

Following seven months of hibernation, an 85 second ‘message’ from Philae was received at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, at 21.28 BST on Saturday June 13. The signals were sent via the orbiting Rosetta mother ship, from which Philae was launched to the surface of 67P last November.

According to ESA, more than 300 data packets have been analysed by the teams at the Lander Control Centre at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR). However, there are still more than 8,000 data packets in Philae’s mass memory that could provide the DLR team with information about what happened to the lander in the past few days on the comet. 

“Philae is doing very well: It has an operating temperature of -35ºC and has 24 Watts available,” said DLR Philae project manager Dr Stephan Ulamec. “The lander is ready for operations.”

Scientists and engineers involved in the project will be both excited and relieved with this new development, as it was uncertain if Philae would be able to power up again following its hibernation. The last contact with the lander took place on November 15, approximately 60 hours after it touched down on the comet.