--- title: Rosetta Space Probe Set to Wake Up Monday description: Updated 1:50 p.m. EST A comet-chasing space probe woke up from hibernation on Monday, after scientists waited an agonizing several hours for the craft's signal... canonical: https://time.com/archive/7218387/scientists-try-to-wake-up-space-probe-rosetta/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-01-20T15:46:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-25T06:05:30.414Z article:section: Science og:title: Rosetta Space Probe Set to Wake Up Monday og:description: Updated 1:50 p.m. EST A comet-chasing space probe woke up from hibernation on Monday, after scientists waited an agonizing several hours for the craft's signal... og:url: https://time.com/archive/7218387/scientists-try-to-wake-up-space-probe-rosetta/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt14c9da19bc1a51da/6998b57fe1ba00e0c998ba41/comet_chaser_ap_0120.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: comet_chaser_ap_0120 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Rosetta Space Probe Set to Wake Up Monday twitter:description: Updated 1:50 p.m. EST A comet-chasing space probe woke up from hibernation on Monday, after scientists waited an agonizing several hours for the craft's signal... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt14c9da19bc1a51da/6998b57fe1ba00e0c998ba41/comet_chaser_ap_0120.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Science](/section/science/) # Scientists Wake Up Space Probe Rosetta by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Jan 20, 2014 3:46 PM UTC  In this Dec. 10, 2013 file picture a European Space Agency, ESA, employee sits in the control room for the Rosetta mission at the ESA in Darmstadt, Germany In this Dec. 10, 2013 file picture a European Space Agency, ESA, employee sits in the control room for the Rosetta mission at the ESA in Darmstadt, GermanyBoris Roessler / dpa / AP by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Jan 20, 2014 3:46 PM UTC **Updated 1:50 p.m. EST** A comet-chasing space probe [woke up](http://science.time.com/2014/01/20/scientists-hope-comet-chaser-spacecraft-wakes-up/) from hibernation on Monday, after scientists waited an agonizing several hours for the craft’s signal to reach earth. The probe Rosetta was switched back on at 11 a.m. GST for the final stage of its decade-long mission to rendezvous with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The spacecraft was powered down in 2011 to conserve energy, and scientists had been in the dark about the probe’s fate ever since. The European Space Agency said it received its first alert from the probe around 1:30 pm EST. There was a chance that the scientists wouldn’t have heard anything from the spacecraft and would have had to reboot it. “We don’t know the status of the spacecraft,” Paolo Ferri, head of mission operations at the European Space Agency, told the Associated Press before they made contact with Rosetta. “There is a possibility that we’re not going to hear anything. Two-and-a-half years are a long time. We’re talking about sophisticated electronics and mechanics. We’ve taken all possible precautions for this not to happen but of course we cannot exclude that problems may have happened.” Rosetta was created to help scientists discover the composition of comets, and in doing so unlock secrets to the evolution of the solar system. The probe will reach 67P in the coming months and drop a lander on its surface in November. _This post was updated when the European Science Agency received its first signal from Rosetta_. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7218387/scientists-try-to-wake-up-space-probe-rosetta/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7218387/scientists-try-to-wake-up-space-probe-rosetta/"},"headline":"Scientists Wake Up Space Probe Rosetta","datePublished":"2014-01-20T15:46:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-25T06:05:30.414Z","description":"Updated 1:50 p.m. EST A comet-chasing space probe woke up from hibernation on Monday, after scientists waited an agonizing several hours for the craft's signal...","url":"https://time.com/archive/7218387/scientists-try-to-wake-up-space-probe-rosetta/","keywords":["Comet","spacecraft"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt14c9da19bc1a51da/6998b57fe1ba00e0c998ba41/comet_chaser_ap_0120.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt14c9da19bc1a51da/6998b57fe1ba00e0c998ba41/comet_chaser_ap_0120.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"comet_chaser_ap_0120","caption":"In this Dec. 10, 2013 file picture a European Space Agency, ESA, employee sits in the control room for the Rosetta mission at the ESA in Darmstadt, Germany","creditText":"Boris Roessler / dpa / AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7218387/scientists-try-to-wake-up-space-probe-rosetta/","name":"Scientists Wake Up Space Probe Rosetta"}}]}] ```