Spacecraft Phones Home ... ready for the final chapter of its mission

Comet-chasing probe wakes up, calls home

The European Space Agency's comet-chasing Rosetta spacecraft woke up, warmed up and called home Monday before setting off on the final leg of its journey. Launched way back in 2004, it has been on a 10 year mission to ultimately rendezvous with the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, follow it around the sun, and even land a small craft on the comet itself - really cool stuff. For the past 31 months it was in hibernation, saving energy, but was told to "call home" when it's ready to complete it's mission. That call came today! Complete story can be found on Space.com and CNN.