Anchor: The European Space Agency (ESA) has opened a new chapter in the history of space exploration with its Philae probe landing successfully on a comet. Scientists are now hopeful that information the spacecraft sends back to Earth will help unlock mysteries surrounding the solar system.   
Our Bae Joo-yon has more.
 
Report: The European Space Agency (ESA) has safely landed its Philae probe on a comet, making it the first spacecraft in history to achieve such a feat.  
 
The ESA’s Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany announced Wednesday that the Philae lander separated from its Rosetta spacecraft mothership and successfully soft-landed on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
 
The landing came more than ten years after the Rosetta launched from the Guiana Space Centre and traveled six-and-a-half billion kilometers in space.
 
As the probe began sending images of the comet’s rugged and sharp surface back to Earth, Stephan Ulamec, ESA’s Philae lander manager, confirmed the historical feat.
 
[Sound bite: Stephan Ulamec, ESA Philae lander manager (English)]
“The landing gear has been moved inside so we are sitting on the surface – and there’s more data to come but we are there."
 
Given that the comet’s gravity is only one-hundred thousandth of the Earth’s gravity, the slightest impact could cause the lander to detach from the comet. Efforts to secure the probe were carried out by firing two harpoons into the comet’s surface but were not successful.
  
Once the Philae is secured, the lander will carry out exploration missions for around three months.
 
Scientists hope the spacecraft’s studies will contribute to unlocking mysteries of the solar system created four-point-six billion years ago.
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.