Scientists Give Up Hope Of Contacting Philae Probe

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Philae has not been in contact with Earth since June 2015. DLR German Aerospace Center

Following a 10-year journey through space and 15 months on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, it’s time to write the obituary for the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Philae probe, after ground controllers gave up trying to re-establish contact with it. Now in eternal hibernation, the small lander had only made intermittent contact with Earth following a problematic landing in November 2014, and has finally been abandoned to the cosmos.