Manipulation of Rosetta’s lander at the Satellite Preparation Facilities at Europe's Spaceport in September 2002.

ESA’s comet rendezvous mission has been selected as a 'Cornerstone' mission of ESA’s long-term science programme 'Horizon 2000'.

The mission's goal is a rendezvous with a comet. The spacecraft will map the comet’s surface in fine detail and deploy a package of instruments (the Rosetta lander) to study some of the most primitive, unprocessed material in the solar system. The mission will provide clues to the physical and chemical processes that marked the systems beginning 4600 million years ago.