Philae comet lander wakes up to phone home

Comet lander Philae has woken up from hibernation, the European Space Agency has said.

Philae made history when it was dropped on to the surface of Comet 67P by mothership, Rosetta, last November. It worked for 60 hours before going to sleep when its solar-powered battery ran flat.

Incredible news! My lander Philae is awake! http://t.co/VtzAQHx4zT pic.twitter.com/SZqnsnNpUZ

— ESA Rosetta Mission (@ESA_Rosetta) June 14, 2015

The comet has since moved closer to the sun, allowing the solar panel on the lander to power it up once more.

Hello @ESA_Rosetta! I'm awake! How long have I been asleep? #Lifeonacomet

— Philae Lander (@Philae2014) June 14, 2015

The German Aerospace Centre, which operates Philae, said today that the probe communicated with the ground team on earth for 85 seconds yesterday.

“Philae is doing very well,” project manager Stephan Ulamec said, saying it was running at -35C from the comet's surface. "The lander is ready for operations."

Since it awoke, the probe has beamed a small amount of data - about 300 packets - back to earth and the team is hoping further signals will be transmitted in the coming days.

The team also said that Philae has been awake for a while, but unable to send a message home until now. "We have also received historical data - so far, however, the lander had not been able to contact us earlier," Ulamec said.

The lander's memory has another 8,000 data packets it hasn't sent home yet.