After a decade-long pursuit through space the European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft made history Wednesday by meeting up with, and entering orbit around a comet, dpa reported. The tiny spacecraft arrived for its highly anticipated rendezvous with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, 405 million kilometres from Earth, shortly after 0900 GMT. Its entry into orbit around 67P was triggered by a short thruster burn, which set the probe on the first leg of its journey to follow the comet through the solar system. "After ten years, five months and four days travelling towards our destination, looping around the Sun five times and clocking up 6.4 billion kilometres, we are delighted to announce finally 'we are here'," ESA's director general Jean-Jacques Dordain announced. Rosetta is the first mission to orbit the nucleus of a comet. The spacecraft will accompany the comet for more than a year as it hurtles through the inner solar system at nearly 55,000 kilometres per hour.
