The Philae robotic lander made the first successful soft landing on a comet in 2014.
Philae was carried to Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko by the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft. It touched down on 12 November 2014 after a journey of more than ten years from Earth. The landing was a major engineering achievement because a comet has extremely weak gravity and an irregular, rugged surface.
Philae’s anchoring system failed to grip the surface as planned, so the lander bounced several times before coming to rest. It still transmitted scientific data and photographed the comet. Its instruments studied the surface, interior structure, dust, gas and organic compounds.
Philae is sometimes confused with Huygens, which landed on Saturn’s moon Titan in 2005. Rosetta itself remained in orbit around the comet, while Philae was the smaller lander that descended to the surface.