DHAKA: Rosetta, Europe’s decade-long quest to put a robotic lander on a comet, has reached a key milestone.

The probe, which has spent the past two-and-half-years moving through space in a deep sleep, was expected to rouse itself at 10:00 GMT, ready to send a signal to Earth.

Receipt of this ‘I’m awake’ message will confirm the great endeavour is still on course, reports the BBC.

Rosetta is due to rendezvous with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in August.

The despatch and landing of the small robot currently piggybacking the probe is set for November.

The reactivation of Rosetta is occurring some 800 million km from Earth, out near the orbit of the planet Jupiter.

Controllers at the European Space Agency’s (Esa) operations centre here in Darmstadt, Germany, do not know precisely when Monday’s all-important contact will be made, but they anticipate their consoles lighting up sometime between 17:30 and 18:30 GMT.

BDST: 1834 HRS, JAN 20, 2014