Rosetta Will Have to Be Dismantled

Now that Rosetta has been delayed indefinitely from its original mission to visit Comet Wirtanen, technicians have to dismantle the spacecraft and return each scientific instrument to the researchers who built them. The mission was cancelled because a recent report indicated that the Ariane 5 rocket was unsafe to launch. Rosetta’s original target was Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, then Comet Wirtanen, so now planners are considering Comets Finlay, Brooks 2 and Wild 2. There’s no scheduled launch date, though.