The European Space Agency's Rosettaprobe swooped around the back of Mars early today, completing a key maneuver in its 10-year mission to meet a distant comet.
The pioneering space probe performed its "swing-by" of the red planet early today, performing the second of four so-called "gravitational assisted maneuvers" that the craft will complete before reaching its ambitious target in 2014.
The three-ton probe successfully orbited Mars close to the controllers' planned trajectory and at one point came within just 250 km (155 miles) of the planet's surface.
"We are all very happy," said Andrea Accomazzo, Rosetta spacecraft operations manager as employees in the Darmstadt control room applauded.
Rosettawill ultimately catch and follow the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in one of the most ambitious projects to date for the European space project.
Controllers had been concerned the probe might face difficulties as it passed through the Martian shadow, losing the solar power source of its instruments and leaving it reliant on a brace of tiny batteries.
But after a 20-minute lull, the probe emerged from the other side of Mars at around 0230 GMT.
The spacecraft builds on the success of earlier European comet chasers like Giotto.
In order to reach the distant comet, the €1 billion probe must first pick up speed and achieve the right trajectory, accelerated and assisted by the four swing-bys which use the gravitational pull of planets as a propellant.