How we got to that comet

Okay, like everyone else in the world, I knew that we had just landed a spacecraft on a comet. What I didn’t realize is what it took to get there. Amazingly, the trip started in March, 2004 -- meaning that it took more than 10.5 years. It required three gravity assists from Earth, another one from Mars, and obviously a ton of math and science. All of this to land on a comet over 300 million miles away. You can see a summary of the entire voyage in this animated GIF.