# Philae’s comet landing

> Philae’s landing and 57-hour science mission traveled through tweets and cartoons.

- Owner: European Space Agency
- Kind: Moment
- Sector: Education
- Seed date: 2014-11-12
- Milestone date: 2014-11-12
- Date basis: Documented milestone; not a measured attention peak.
- Spread Score: 10 (Niche, provisional), v1.2
- Mechanics: Platform jump, Real-world spectacle

## Summary

ESA’s Rosetta account and DLR’s Philae account spoke as spacecraft characters, coordinating key exchanges before landing. The dialogue traveled beyond science reporting into poetry and architecture; ESA later reported 287,000 new Philae followers on landing day.

## Timeline

- 2014-11-12 — European Space Agency (Open web) — Mission controllers received confirmation that Philae had touched down on the comet.
- 2014-11-12 — Milestone: Randall Munroe (Open web) — Randall Munroe published a cartoon flipbook following the landing.
- 2014-11-12 — ESA and DLR communications teams (X) — ESA’s Rosetta and DLR’s Philae accounts staged coordinated dialogue, with key tweets agreed in advance.

The full timeline, metrics and sources are on the case page, or via the Pro API (https://howitspread.com/developers).

Canonical URL: https://howitspread.com/cases/philae-comet-landing

Cite as: How It Spread (2026). “Philae’s comet landing.” Case HIS-01054. Spread Score v1.2: 10/100. Updated 2026-10-17. https://howitspread.com/id/HIS-01054