The European Space Agency's (ESA) robot probe has made the first ever landing on a comet; however, an anchoring mechanism developed difficulties, possibly hampering further exploration.

Named Rosetta, the mission was designed to demystify comets as well as explore the origins of the universe. Almost weightless on the comet surface, the probe, called Philae, needed a seven-hour descent from the Rosetta mother ship to reach the comet that was about 300 miles from Earth.

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Comets represent opportunities for scientists to examine what may reveal the basic building blocks of Earth. Scientists want to learn the extent of melted comets in the world's oceans in an effort to identify how water developed. Some speculated comets brought water to the planet. Another mission benefit stemmed from new technology that may be useful in future attempts to mine asteroids.

The anchoring problem centered on harpoons designed to keep Philae from drifting on the comet's surface. They apparently failed to deploy during the lander's free-fall to Comet 67P/Churymov-Gerasimeko.

The 2.5-mile wide comet, which was first discovered in 1969, moves at 40,000 miles per hour through the black stretches of space. The mission officially took 10 years, five months and four days, costing almost $2 billion.

From ESA's mission control center at Darmstadt, Germany, Jean Jacques Dordain, ESA director general, said Rosetta's ambitious mission "has secured another place in history books." He called the effort "a big step for human civilization."

The comet was the seventh heavenly body with a manmade spacecraft landing. Mars, Venus, Saturn's moon Titan, the moon, two asteroids and comet Tempel-1 are the others.

Tagsphilae, Space, comet, NASA, asteroids, european space agency, rosetta, NASA