New Zealand engineers will be watching closely as a space probe attempts to hitch a ride on a comet streaking by at 66,000km/h early tomorrow morning.

Scientists have waited more than a decade for one of the most audacious space adventures ever – the European Space Agency’s attempt to land a scientific probe on the giant ball of ice and dust known as 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

They’ll find out about 5am tomorrow (NZT) whether their plan will work when the agency’s mission control centre in Darmstadt, Germany, gives its unmanned Rosetta space probe the final go-ahead to drop a lander on the comet.

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– AP, with additional reporting by  NZ Herald

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