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The spacecraft that landed on a comet, containing a miniature laboratory designed by Oxfordshire scientists, failed to descend as planned.
One of its three legs appears to be suspended in space while the other two made contact with the comet.
Scientists are now trying to establish where on the surface of comet 67P/Churymov-Gerasimenko, a 2.5-mile lump of ice and dust 300 million miles from Earth. The lander contains a chemical analysis instrument designed and built by RAL Space, the Open University and staff at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory at Harwell Oxford.
The lander’s probe is being powered by lithium-ion batteries provided by ABSL Space Products of Culham Laboratory near Abingdon.
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