We've put together a simplified timeline showing some of the more interesting and critical events that are happening this week and on 'F-Day' - 10 July, when Rosetta makes closest approach to Lutetia.

Highlights include: ground stations passes using ESA and NASA deep-space antennas, Rosetta's famous 'flip' into its upside-down orientation for flyby mid-day on Saturday, loss and acquisition of signal and the start/pause/stop of the webcast live from ESA/ESOC.

Access the detailed timeline below under 'full story' -- Daniel


 

 

Rosetta is expected to pass Lutetia at a distance of 3162 km and a relative speed of 54 000 km/hr at 18:10:17 CEST on 10 July, when both are located some 454 million km from Earth. 

About four hours before closest approach, mission controllers at ESOC, ESA's European Space Operations Centre, will issue commands that will flip Rosetta over and ready the spacecraft to enter asteroid fly-by mode (AFM). During this mode, the orientation of the spacecraft is automatically driven by the navigation cameras to continuously keep the asteroid in the field of view of the imaging instruments. 

Timeline of major activities
Note: Times shown are ground event times in Central European Summer Time (CEST = UTC/GMT + 2 hours). Spacecraft event time is 25 mins and 21 secs earlier. All times are estimates and may prove to be off by a few percent. Check the Rosetta blog regularly for updates!

 

Date SC Event 
UTC		 Ground Event 
UTC		 Ground Event 
CEST		 Event / Activity
28-Jun 0:00:00 0:23:17 2:23:17 Start permanent pointing to Lutetia
5-Jul 12:45:00 13:09:26 15:09:26 Start of payload activities - 1st switch ON
9-Jul 0:00:00 0:25:05 2:25:05 Start - TCM slot (AFB - 40h)
9-Jul 3:00:00 3:25:05 5:25:05 End - TCM slot (AFB - 40h)
9-Jul 3:00:00 3:25:05 5:25:05 Start last image acquisition for navigation planning
9-Jul   5:30:00 7:30:00 Start of tracking - ESA/ESTRACK New Norcia station (NNO)
9-Jul 8:00:00 8:25:05 10:25:05 End last image acquisition for navigation planning
9-Jul   13:29:00 15:29:00 End of tracking - ESA/ESTRACK New Norcia station (NNO)
9-Jul   13:30:00 15:30:00 Start of tracking - ESA/ESTRACK Cebreros station (CEB)
9-Jul   20:00:00 22:00:00 Telecommands for TCM at AFB-12h are ready (used only if needed)
9-Jul   22:02:00 0:02:00 End of tracking -  - ESA/ESTRACK Cebreros station (CEB)
9-Jul   22:00:00 0:00:00 Start of tracking - NASA/DSN Goldstone (GDS)
10-Jul 22:00:00 22:25:05 0:25:05 Start - Rosetta's NAVCAM asteroid tracking
10-Jul   3:30:00 5:30:00 End of tracking - NASA /DSN Goldstone (GDS)
10-Jul 3:00:00 3:25:14 5:25:14 Start - TCM slot (AFB - 12h) - Loss of TM signal from Rosetta
10-Jul   3:33:00 5:33:00 Start of tracking - ESA/ESTRACK New Norcia station (NNO)
10-Jul   6:00:00 8:00:00 Final telecommands for flyby ready from ESA Flight Dynamics team
10-Jul 6:00:00 6:25:14 8:25:14 End - TCM slot (AFB - 12h) - Acquisition of TM signal
10-Jul 6:00:00 6:25:14 8:25:14 Final NAVCAM asteroid tracking check
10-Jul   8:00:00 10:00:00 Uplink of updated final fly-by commands
10-Jul   8:20:00 10:20:00 Start of tracking - NASA/DSN Canberra (CAN)
10-Jul   10:20:00 12:20:00 End of tracking - NASA/DSN Canberra (CAN)
10-Jul   10:00:00 12:00:00 Final NAVCAM asteroid tracking slot
10-Jul   11:05:00 13:05:00 Start of tracking - ESA/ESTRACK Cebreros (CEB) & NASA/DSN Madrid (MAD)
10-Jul   12:30:00 14:30:00 End of tracking - ESA/ESTRACK Cebreros station (CEB)
10-Jul   13:26:00 15:26:00 End of tracking - ESA/ESTRACK New Norcia station (NNO)
10-Jul 11:24:53 11:50:07 13:50:07 Start Rosetta flip manoeuvre
10-Jul 12:04:53 12:30:07 14:30:07 End Rosetta flip manoeuvre
10-Jul   12:45:00 14:45:00 Last opportunity to uplink AFM mode  
telecommands
10-Jul 12:44:53 13:10:07 15:10:07 Start asteroid closed-loop tracking - Rosetta on self-navigation
10-Jul   16:00:00 18:00:00 Start webcast - Media event live from ESA/ESOC
10-Jul 15:39:53 16:05:07 18:05:07 Stop - radio communications via high-gain antenna - Loss of TM signal (earliest)
10-Jul 15:44:56 16:10:17 18:10:17 Closest approach to Lutetia
10-Jul 15:54:53 16:20:07 18:20:07 End asteroid closed-loop tracking
10-Jul 16:19:53 16:45:07 18:45:07 Resume radio communications via high-gain antenna - Acquisition of TM signal (latest)
10-Jul   16:47:00 18:47:00 Webcast pause
10-Jul 17:40:21 18:05:35 20:05:35 Start science data downlink
10-Jul   21:00:00 23:00:00 Resume webcast - media event live from ESA/ESOC - Science team present images
10-Jul   21:45:00 23:45:00 End webcast
10-Jul   21:55:00 23:55:00 End of tracking - NASA/DSN Madrid (MAD)
10-Jul   22:25:00 0:25:00 Start of tracking - NASA/DSN Goldstone (GDS)
11-Jul   2:25:00 4:25:00 End of tracking - NASA/DSN Goldstone (GDS)
11-Jul   3:30:00 5:30:00 Start of tracking - ESA/ESTRACK New Norcia station (NNO)
11-Jul   13:24:00 15:24:00 End of tracking - ESA/ESTRACK New Norcia station (NNO)
16-Jul 13:15:00 13:41:02 15:41:02 End of payload activities