The countdown is on: In just a few months, the European Space Agency (ESA)’s comet-hunting probe Rosetta should touch down on 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. If successful, it will be the first space probe to make landfall on a comet’s nucleus. Before it gets there, though, it has to perform a series exacting maneuvers in the next few days, powered by precisely-timed rocket thrusts.

According to the ESA’s Rosetta website, “Orbit entry will take place on 6 August, and will be triggered by a small but crucial thruster firing lasting just 6 min 26 sec, starting at 09:00 GMT (11:00 CEST). The commands were uploaded during the night of 4 August.”

These thrusts will send Rosetta into a triangular orbit about the comet, with a soft landing on the surface scheduled for November 11. Without even having made contact with the comet, Rosetta has already provided scientists with a bevy of information. Back in July, Rosetta was able to send both infrared and thermal images back to Earth, and even got a reading on the comet’s surface temperature: At a balmy -70 degrees Celsius, the comet is likely covered in rock, not ice.

“This result is very interesting, since it gives us the first clues on the composition and physical properties of the comet’s surface,” says VIRTIS principal investigator Fabrizio Capaccioni from INAF-IAPS, Rome, Italy.

Rosetta’s journey was a decade in the making, and it finally caught up with the comet halfway between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars. Traveling on a 6.5 year orbit that stretches as far out as Jupiter, the comet will eventually reach its nearest point to the sun somewhere between Earth and Mars. Rosetta will camp out on its surface for about a year.

Comets are believed to be primitive building blocks of the universe, but their speed and proximity have made them difficult to study. They’re believed to have “seeded” Earth with water, and may have supplied Earth with the crucial elements necessary for life. Rosetta aims to answer those questions and more as it gains unprecedented access to the comet’s nucleus.

“After ten years, five months and four days travelling towards our destination, looping around the Sun five times and clocking up 6.4 billion kilometres, we are delighted to announce finally ‘we are here’,” says Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA’s Director General.