Touchdown: The European Space Agency successfully landed its Philae robotic probe on a comet 310-million miles from earth. It’s an historic first landing of a man-made craft on a comet.

It wasn’t all smooth. The lander hit hard and bounced two-thirds of a mile back into space before settling down into the shadow of a cliff. Then the anchors that are supposed to hold Philae to the comet’s surface failed to deploy. Lack of sunlight could hinder the lander’s performance.

Philae is programmed to perform 64 hours of scientific studies before its batteries run out. After that solar rechargers will enable the probe to operate for a couple of hours a day over several months.

The lander Philae is named after an island in the Nile River where an ancient obelisk was found that, along with the Rosetta Stone, helped decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics. The Rosetta spacecraft carried the Philae lander on a 10-year passage through space.

Baby It’s Cold: There’s freezing rain in the Pacific Northwest and heavy snow expected in parts of the Great Lakes states as a cold and stormy weather system settles into most of the US. It’s -1 in Missoula; Denver, -1; Chicago, 26; Dallas, 30; Buffalo, 32.

Oil: In what may be a slap to President Obama after his carbon-emissions deal with China, both the House and Senate announced plans to vote on approval of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline for Canadian oil. Obama has repeatedly delayed an executive decision on the pipeline. Newly empowered Republicans and politically threatened Democrats may line up to try to override his indecision.

Nation: Pilot Peter Diebold was thrown clear into minus 70 degree air and parachuted to earth as the private SpaceShipTwo broke up over the Mojave desert. Diebold told NTSB investigators he was unaware at the time that his co-pilot had prematurely unlocked the spacecraft’s air brakes, possibly causing a structural failure 10 miles up.

>Two window washers were left dangling 69 stories high on the new World Trade Center yesterday when a cable on their platform snapped. It took firefighters 90 minutes to cut through inches of plate glass and pull the two men inside an unfinished floor of the trade tower.

Mother Russia: Trucks used to transport the bodies of Russian soldiers have been seen crossing the Ukraine border, according to European monitors. The trucks were marked “Cargo 200,” Russian military code for soldiers killed in action. Ukraine says Russia recently sent men and heavy weapons into rebel-held eastern Ukraine, but Russia denies it.

And in another incremental move, as Russia returns to Cold War tensions, the country’s defense minister says Russian long-range bombers will begin patrolling as far as the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. Both the US and European countries have intercepted Russian jets near their airspace in recent months. Sweden suspected it had a Russian submarine violating its waters.

Butt Call: Celebutante Kim Kardashian has stirred a controversy as big as her bare butt by posing nude for an online magazine. Kardashian, always a class act, tweeted, “And they say I didn’t have a talent…try balancing a champagne glass on your ass LOL.” Comedian Jimmy Kimmel noted the event and reminded viewers that there are people in the world who can land a washing-machine size robot on a moving comet.

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