Just over a year ago the whole world watched as the Rosetta Space Probe successfully landed the Philae lander onto comet 67/P Churyumov–Gerasimenko, marking the first soft-landing ever on such a body.
Galway Astronomy Club are delighted to announce that the Operation Engineer for that mission, Westmeath man Laurence O’Rourke, has agreed to deliver a special Christmas talk to the Club in which he will recount the story of that amazing mission; from its launch in March 2004 to its flyby of Mars and its historical encounter with the Comet.
The talk will give a high level overview of the Rosetta mission and is based mainly around imagery and videos and is a “not to be missed talk” by anyone with an interest in our wonderful universe
Laurence is a native of Mullingar and graduate of NUI Maynooth and UCC. He has been working with the European Space Agency on space missions since 1996, including the first payload launch of the Arianne 5 system in 1997, the William Herschel Space Telescope and of course the Rosetta Mission.
The talk is going to free and open to all, and will take place at 7.30 pm on Monday Dec 21 at the Westwood House Hotel.
