It’s the moment of truth for the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta comet mission as the Philae probe is set to park itself on a Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko after 11:02 EST / 16:02 GMT / 17:02 CET today.

This is a historic mission as it will be the first time that a spacecraft has landed on a comet.

After 10 years fixed to the side of the Rosetta, the washing machine-sized Philae lander detached from the mother ship at around 3:30 am EST Wednesday morning to begin its 7 to 8 hour long descent to the surface of the 4 kilometer-wide (2.5-miles) Comet 67.

Understandably, this is no ordinary parking job as the comet is travelling at speeds of up to 135,000 km/h (84,000mph), while due to the fact that it’s too small to have any meaningful gravitational pull, Philae will use a harpoon to safely anchor it to the comet’s surface and prevent it from bouncing back into space.

The mission is expected to last about a year with Philae to send back a panorama of its surroundings, while also drilling through the surface to take samples before feeding them to its laboratory for analysis. According to ESA’s website, sensors on the probe will analyze gases in the coma and tail, and measure density and thermal properties, providing invaluable information to scientists.

Below you can watch the live feed from ESA.

Photos courtesy of ESA

Update: ESA confirmed that Philae has successfully landed on the comet’s surface!

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