In a first for space exploration, Philae was dropped onto the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on November 12, 2014 after a 10-year, 6.5-billion-kilometre (four-billion-mile) journey through space piggybacking on mothership Rosetta, which is now orbiting the comet. Philae made eight intermittent contacts via Rosetta, only to fall silent again on July 9.VIDEOGRAPHIC
