After traveling 10 years and hundreds of millions of kilometers,a small robotic spacecraft has for the first time landed on the surface of a comet, a solar system object made of ice and rock.The probe launched from the European Space Agency's main Rosetta spaceship early Wednesday.The spaceship is designed to carefully study the appearance and materials that make up the Comet 67P/Churymov-Gerasimenko.Scientists worried the probe might not land on solid ground but early reports say the Philae research probe is in good condition.Stephan Ulamec, of the German Aerospace Center, announced the news.He said the landing equipment and a special device meant to secure the spacecraft to the comet had deployed."Philae is talking to us, first things he told us is that the harpoons have been fired, rewound and that the landing gear has been moved inside,so we are sitting on the surface, Philae is talking to us, more data to come."Early on Wednesday, ground controllers at the European Space Agency operations center in Germany confirmed that Philae had separated from the Rosetta ship.
