Viewing Guide: Watch a Spacecraft Land on a Comet
In '7 Hours of Terror' on Wednesday, Rosetta spacecraft's Philae lander will try to land on a comet's craggy surface.
After a ten-year journey, the final nerve-wracking countdown is only hours away as a probe prepares for a daring landing on a high-speed comet.
Other spacecraft have made contact with comets before, but only as impacts, essentially crash landings such as the Deep Impact probe that smashed into a comet in 2005. This will be the first time a mission tries to soft-land on a comet, allowing it to deploy delicate scientific instruments, and will mark only the eighth body in the solar system to be landed on. (See the National Geographic Channel's "Comet Catcher: The Rosetta Landing.")
The spacecraft has spent the past few months scouting out a suitable landing site as it built up a stunning portrait of
