When Was the Rosetta Mission Completed?

Rosetta was launched by the European Space Agency on 2 March 2004, embarking on a 10-year journey to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. After three Earth gravity assists, one Mars flyby, and a 31-month hibernation in deep space, it arrived at the comet in August 2014 — the first spacecraft to orbit a comet. On 12 November 2014, it deployed the Philae lander, which achieved the first-ever soft landing on a comet. Philae bounced twice before settling in a shadowed crevice, where it operated for 60 hours before its batteries died. Rosetta continued orbiting and studying the comet as it approached the Sun, discovering organic molecules (including the amino acid glycine), observing outgassing jets, and mapping the surface in extraordinary detail. Key findings included that cometary water has a different deuterium/hydrogen ratio than Earth oceans (suggesting asteroids, not comets, delivered most of Earth water). The mission ended on 30 September 2016 when Rosetta was deliberately crashed into the comet, transmitting data until impact.