Rosetta space probe touches down onto the surface of a speeding comet

After a long journey through the blackness of space, it all came down to nailing the landing.
Today, the washing-machine-sized Philae lander descended from the European Space Agency's Rosetta space probe, and touched down on the surface of a speeding comet. And it all happened hundreds of millions of kilometres from Earth.

The landing seems to have been successful, but there are some concerns that the craft may not be properly anchored on the small icy body.

Stuart Clark is an astrophysicist and astronomer who has been watching today's events from the European Space Agency's control centre in Darmstadt, Germany. He described the reaction as it touched down, "I think it was almost one of shock because it touched down at virtually exactly the time that it was predicted to... virtually to the minute."