Illustration of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft orbiting the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Rosetta was launched in March 2004 on a 10 year mission to study the comet. Rosetta carried instruments to map the comet's surface and probe its core, as well as the Philae lander and was the first mission designed to land on a comet. On 12 November 2014, Philae landed on the comet, although its touchdown left it in a non-optimal location and orientation. However it was able to perform analysis of the comet's surface and communicated sporadically with Rosetta until 9 July 2015, when contact was lost. On 30 September 2016, the Rosetta spacecraft ended its mission by crashing in the comet's Ma'at region.