Rosetta team celebrate as probe reaches comet 67P after 10-year journey

The team behind the probe that will land on a comet has reacted with relief after the craft signalled that it had successfully completed its 10-year journey

2:32PM BST 06 Aug 2014

These were the scenes at the European Space Agency's space operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany after receiving a signal from their comet-bound spacecraft "Rosetta".

Operating on a tiny amount of solar energy alone, Rosetta had spent 31 months in a deep space slumber, cruising out to a distance of nearly 800 million kilometres from the warmth of the Sun.

But - having been brought back closer to the Sun by its own orbit - there was enough solar energy to power up its navigation and communication systems.

This brings forth the next stage in Rosetta's decade-long journey through space, a historic rendezvous with a comet - named Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko - on 6 August 2014.