Illustration of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft (upper right) deploying its lander Philae. Rosetta was launched in March 2004 on a 10 year mission to study the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It was the first mission designed to land on a comet. Rosetta carried instruments to map the comet's surface and probe its core, as well as the Philae lander. On 12 November 2014, Philae landed on the comet, although its touchdown left it in a non-optimal location and orientation. However, it was able to perform analysis of the comet's surface and communicated sporadically with Rosetta until 9 July 2015, when contact was lost. On 30 September 2016, the Rosetta spacecraft ended its mission by crashing into the comet's Ma'at region.