Chelmsford technology firm e2v has become part of history after its imaging sensors on European spacecraft Rosetta reached their destination - a deep space comet.
The probe is now within the orbit of Comet 67P this morning (August 6) after a successful mission following a decade-long search.
Rosetta, a 10-feet box-like structure, was launched back in 2004 and its hunt for the comet has taken it four billion miles across the asteroid belt.
For the next 17 months Rosetta will remain close to the comet.
However, both are still 250 million miles away from Earth.
Marc Saunders, president of space imaging at e2v, which supplies high-tech image sensors to space, science and medical companies, described it as a proud day.
He said: "After a 10 year journey, Rosetta will today finally arrive at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This will make history as the first mission to rendezvous with a comet.
"Rosetta's instruments will first obtain images of the comet's surface prior to the lander being deployed in November to make an in situ analysis to determine its composition and structure.
"Here at e2v, we are delighted to have been a part of this journey, supplying Rosetta with five imaging sensors, which will capture these high resolution images and provide science data from the comets nucleus.
"It is hoped that this analysis may even take us closer to understanding how life started on the earth. This is a proud day for ESA, for e2v and for science"
