LONDON: Out of the shadows and into the sunlight, the sleepy-headed little comet lander Philae has again updated its status after waking from a seventh-month slumber six days ago, the European Space Agency said Friday.
And its rarin’ to get back to work, controllers said.
“The contact has confirmed that Philae is doing very well,” the team at the European Space Operations Center in Germany reported.
Philae actually woke up in May, but didn’t have enough battery juice to give the Rosetta orbiter a shout-out.
The spacecraft, the first to land on a comet, sent signals Friday for the third time since emerging from hibernation after its historic, bouncing touchdown in November. The awkward landing limited sun to its solar panels, which drained Philae’s batteries after just 60 hours of scientific analysis and caused the probe to fall into safe mode.
