Posted: Mon, Jan 13, 2003, 1:54 PM ET (1854 GMT)
The European Space Agency will likely reschedule the launch of its Rosetta comet mission for January 22 or shortly thereafter, the BBC reported Monday. Scientists and project officials speaking at a press briefing in London Monday said they believed that the agency would go ahead with the launch of the spacecraft on a baseline Ariane 5 booster, after an investigation into the launch failure last month of an Ariane 5 ESC-A essentially cleared the baseline version of any problems. The earliest Rosetta could launch would be on January 22, project scientist Gerhard Schwehm told the media, with three other dates — January 23, 26, and 29 — as options. Rosetta must launch by the end of January in order to reach its destination, comet Wirtanen. Should the launch be delayed beyond the end of the month for any reason, the mission could be delayed for many months while a suitable alternative destination is selected. Rosetta was originally scheduled to launch on January 12, at the beginning of its narrow launch window, but was delayed while the investigation into the Ariane 5 ESC-A failure continued. ESA is expected to announce a decision on the Rosetta launch date Tuesday.

Related Links:

•  BBC article
•  Rosetta web site