Rosetta mission includes Toronto-area engineer

A Toronto-area man was among the hundreds of scientists celebrating Wednesday when, for the first time, a man-made probetouched down on a comet.

JakubErmanekof Burlington, Ont., had a front-row seat when thePhilaelander touched down on comet67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko he was one of hundreds of team members watching from a control room in Germany.

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"It was terribly exciting,"Ermanektold CBC News via Skype. "I've been on this project for two years and it was amazingly exciting for me there were tears in the control room."

Ermanekis an operations engineer, part of the team at the European Space Agency that sends operating instructions to the Rosetta spacecraft, which in turn sends instructions toPhilae.

"There are so many things about this mission that have never been done before, so getting to be here on the front line is just amazing," he added.