The European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft was deliberately destroyed sinner Sept. 30, 2016 Launched in 2004, Rosetta has spent 10 years chasing Comet 67P, a rubbery duck-shaped space rock that orbits the Sun between Earth and Jupiter.
According to Space, Rosetta spent the next two years marking the comet as it traveled through the solar system, and when it was time for the mission to end, Rosetta gently bumped into the comet.
It is worth noting that a NASA spacecraft deliberately collided recently with an asteroid, but not to end its mission like Rosetta, but to divert its course away from Earth, in an unprecedented test aimed at teaching humanity, how to prevent cosmic bodies from destroying life on Earth.
