The Rosetta payload for Flight 158 made its initial contact with hardware from the Ariane 5 launcher as mission preparations continue on schedule for a Feb. 26 liftoff.
This activity occurred in the Spaceport’s S3B clean room, where Rosetta was mated to a cone-shaped adapter that serves as the interface structure between the deep-space probe and its Ariane 5.
For the latest on the countdown to Flight 158, see our Mission Update on the Arianespace web site:
http://www.arianespace.com