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We're at the comet! Yes!" exclaimed Sylvain Lodiot, Rosetta's spacecraft operations manager, once the probe's successful arrival at Comet 67P/C-G was confirmed.

I watched the . . . Thrilling (NOT) . . . approach last night. I want my two hours back. It was two hours of talking head dignitaries pre-congratulating themselves, thanking everyone, including the "Lord Mayor" of the town, and 1950s level animation of a gray and white Sponge Bob like character riding a "Rosetta Space Probe" jumping up and down, crying "Are we there yet?"

One female spokeswoman waxed breathless about how this would inspire the children to study math and science. I thought it was more likely to cause them to take up bus driving. It would be more eventful and exciting.

At one point, they focused the camera on a digital countdown clock with 12 seconds left, saying the maneuver is about to begin. When it reached zero, "The maneuver has begun. In 22 minutes, we'll know if it worked." At NO time did they explain what the maneuver was to do, show an animation of said maneuver, or tell anyone why they needed to do it. Instead, they cut, without explanation, to a years old video of the awakening of Rosetta, which consisted of people staring at a wave form on a screen that suddenly showed a blip!, and the people exploded into cheers. After 22 minutes of talking to people in front of laptops and computer screens about not much, one of them announces "The maneuver worked." CHEERS.

More talking heads. . . more replaying of the same bad SpongeBob animation. Finally as ennui sets in, one guy in charge of the imaging shows some blurry images of the comet. . . taken months ago. . . after talking about how exciting it was to get a "single pixel image of the comet, then a two pixel, the a 22 pixel moving pixel that they could construct this image from!" And showed a pixelated dumbbell. Whee!

FINALLY, as I was nodding off from sheer boredom, At 2:31 AM Pacific time, as the MC was interviewing another personage, she says "I want to hear you say it!" To which the response is:

"We're at the comet! Yes!" exclaimed Sylvain Lodiot, Rosetta's spacecraft operations manager, once the probe's successful arrival at Comet 67P/C-G was confirmed.

"Look. People are cheering and hugging over there!" Said the bubbly MC.

"Well, now that Rosetta has arrived, the real work can start. . . "

No animation, no pictures, no explanation of how close an orbit. . . No science. More talking heads. I went to bed to dream of a career in bus driving.