Farewell, Rosetta comet mission | Space | EarthSky
beginning around October 1, 2016, if the mission were to continue Rosetta’s operators would be facing reduced communications due to a conjunction of the comet and spacecraft. That is, the comet is now edging into the sun’s glare and will soon be behind the sun as seen from Earth. ESA said this is another contributing factor to concluding the mission in late September.
By September 30, 2016, Rosetta will be about 356 million miles (573 million km) from the sun and 447 million miles (720 million km) from Earth.
The one-way signal travel time will be about 40 minutes.