Rosetta flyby of asteroid Steins : VNR
ESA TV Exchanges
At 20:37 CET (18:37 UT) 5 September, ESA's comet chaser Rosetta will whizz past a small asteroid, the first of two on the way to its final objective to orbit and land on a comet. It will be a rare event, only a handful of asteroids having been seen at close quarters. Rosetta will fly past asteroid Steins at a distance of 800 kilometres and this will allow observations of a largely unknown and rare class of asteroid.
The A-roll describes the upcoming encounter, and B-Roll soundbites feature Rosetta mission managers, scientists and leading authorities on asteroids and comets - and new 3D animations.
For more info on this subject please check the shotlist that is online as a PDF file under http://television.esa.int/photos/EbS58776.pdf
A WMV preview clip is online under : http://esa.contentcoders.com/mphi/Rosetta_TV_20-08-08_wmplow.wmv
The same set of files is also be available on the e-vision ftp.
More backgroud information can be found on: http://www.

Rosetta : rendez-vous with an asteroid
00:00:00 - Tape start
00:01:00 - A-roll start
00:01:40
Much like broken rocks, hundreds of thousands of asteroids circle the Sun between Mars and Jupiter, on orbits sometimes potentially hazardous for Earth. Others orbit at far greater distances. It is with one of these primitive building blocks of our Solar System that Rosetta will rendezvous.
00:02:05
On its long odyssey to investigate and land on a comet, ESA's probe will be conducting its first scientific investigation, flying by asteroid 2687-Steins at a distance of 800km. Only a handful of asteroids have been seen at such close quarters but never one of this type.
00:02:28
The vast majority are bright S-class silicates. Darker, more primitive asteroids further from the Sun contain carbon. Steins belongs to a rare, largely unknown intermediate E-class, very bright and probably with a much-weathered surface.
00:02:47
Ground telescopes - and Rosetta itself at a great distance in March 2006 - have measured its brightne