Engineers at a Huddersfield firm have joined excitement across the globe after a space satellite it helped build ended its two-year mission.
Reliance Precision, based in Lepton, were full of pride at news the Rosetta space probe collided with a comet in space on Friday morning.
Before landing in November 2014, the satellite had travelled for 10 years to reach the comet.
The firm, who manufacture gear systems, designed a mechanism to help the probe lift its two 15 metre solar panels.
Without the gears, the satellite wouldn’t have been able to power itself millions of miles through space.
In a statement on the firm’s website, a spokesperson said: “The team at Reliance is thrilled to be contributing to such a prestigious project.
VIDEO: See the moment Rosetta lands in 2014
“There is something both satisfying and humbling about knowing our components are not only performing perfectly, but in deep space at a distance of around 500 million miles from our works here in Huddersfield.”
The Rosetta comet has been gathering information and photographs of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko after launching a robot onto it.
It collided with the 4km-wide ball of dust and ice on Friday shortly after 12pm GMT.
Before its collision, the Rosetta satellite sent a host of detailed photographs showing the comet’s surface, as well as a series of measurements to help scientists.
Researchers say the data will help keep them busy furthering our understanding of space for decades to come.
