A shadow hangs over the rocket that will blast next month's flagship European comet mission into space. British scientist André Balogh has told the BBC he fears the Rosetta probe could miss its flight due to technical problems on the launch vehicle. But the European Space Agency says the rocket's faults are not major and can be sorted out before the launch date. The £600m Rosetta mission aims to put a lander on Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko to study primordial ices and gases.Rosetta is currently scheduled to leave Europe's Kourou spaceport, in French Guiana, on 26 February, atop an Ariane 5 G+ rocket. The probe should have launched a year ago but was grounded after another Ariane 5 vehicle exploded four minutes into a flight from Kourou.The delay that resulted from the accident investigation led to Rosetta's original quarry, Comet Wirtanen, being abandoned and the mission re-designed.Scientists have now selected a new target comet - a ball of ice, rock and dust that has the full name of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. But they are worried that technical issues related to Rosetta's new launch vehicle, raised in reviews of its flight readiness, may delay the mission yet again.

André Balogh, professor of space physics at Imperial College London, UK, has an instrument on Rosetta.


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