Philae lander descent. Descent of the Philae lander to the surface of comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014. The lander was launched aboard the Rosetta spacecraft in March 2004 on a 10 year mission to study this comet. Rosetta rendezvoused with the comet on 6th August 2014 and Philae landed on the comet on 12th November 2014. It performed analyses of the comet's surface, giving an insight into conditions during the formation of the solar system some 4.6 billion years ago. However its batteries ran down due to reduced sunlight, a result of its position and orientation on its unplanned landing site. Time-lapse composite created from images taken by Philae's ROLIS instrument during descent.