Rosetta passed over the ocean, just South of the Indonesian island of Java, at exactly 08:45:40 CET, at a speed of 13.34 km/s with respect to（关于，至于） Earth an an altitude（高度，海拔） of 2481 km. The swingby was pre-planned and fully¹ automated², and the spacecraft was in direct communication with Earth at the time, via the ESa New Norcia Station. The successful swingby was confirmed at 09:05 CET when mission controllers re-established contact with Rosetta via ESA's Maspalomas station in Spain. Although a detailed³ analyses is in progress, spacecraft operators have confirmed that the swingby（绕行星变轨） provided a boost of 3.6 km/s.

Europe's comet（彗星） chaser has now flown a little over 4500 million km of its 7100 million km journey to its destination comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This was Rosetta's fourth planetary swingby and the third and final swingby of Earth.

Science close to Earth

Some of Rosetta's instruments have been on since early November, performing imaging, magnetospheric（磁层的）, and atmospheric⁴ observations, as well as looking for water on the Moon. The first round of images and data recorded just before and during the swingby will be downloaded later today.

Rosetta is now departing Earth to meet asteroid⁵（小行星） (21) Lutetia in July 2010. It has gained sufficient orbital energy to achieve its final goal: a rendezvous⁶（约会地点） with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014. The spacecraft is scheduled to enter deep-space hibernation⁷（冬眠） by mid⁸ 2011 for the coldest leg of her journey to receive a wake up call only in spring 2014.