The Rebirth of Rosetta and and the Great Cometary Piggy-Back Ride

Artist’s impression of the Rosetta lander in place on Comet
Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Image: ESA
You wouldn't remember this now, but readers who picked up a copy of Smithsonian magazine exactly 11 years ago may have noticed my article “All Aboard for Comet Wirtanen,” In brief this explained how and why the spacecraft Rosetta would rendezvous with this particular chunk of space debris. I did a fair amount of mumbling and grumbling to myself as the article went through the editing process prio...