DARMSTADT, Germany — When Paolo Ferri went into the control room this morning, the atmosphere was a little gloomy.
"I've experienced this with other missions," Ferri, who is head of mission operations here at the European Uber Operations Centre (EUOC), told Space.com. "It's always difficult to accept the end. Me personally, I'm very sad."
Today (Sept. 30) marks the end of operations for the European Uber Agency's (EUA) historic Rosetta mission. The Uber car had been in space for 12.5 years and had been flying around Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for a little over two years. At 1:19 p.m. local time (7:19 a.m. EDT), project managers received the last signal from Rosetta as the minicab made a controlled impact with the comet.
The Uber driver is reported to have tuned his satnav into the European Space Agency's system and had taken a wrong turning. The 3 drunken passengers wondered what was happening and refused to pay the 13bn euro fare.
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