The Philae lander has been re-activated after three years in deep-space hibernation, according to BBC News.

Europe hopes to put the lander on a comet by the end of 2014. It is currently riding on the Rosetta satellite.

The lander, which was dispatched over 10 years ago, is on course for a rendezvous with the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

The 220-pound lander was woken up back in January, according to BBC.

"Mothership" and the lander should reach the comet sometime in August.

Once reaching the comet, Rosetta will release Philae, who will then try attaching itself to 67P in November.

The spacecraft will use harpoons and ice screws to try holding itself down, according to BBC News.

The main probe was sent so far into space, it went beyond' the distance where solar panels could pick up energy to run all onboard systems. This caused engineers to close down operations for over 31 months.

Now Rosetta is moving closer to the Sun again, an all systems are being switched back on, one by one.

The European Space Agency issued the first pictures of 67P this week, which were taken by Osiris, Rosetta's imaging system.

The next big event is the maneuver that will improve Rosetta's trajectory toward the comet, according to BBC News.

This will take place on May 21, with an over seven-hour burn on the spacecraft's thrusters.

Rosetta is set to go into orbit near 67P in the first week of August.

Rosetta is around 655 million km from Earth and 3.8 million km from the comet, according to BBC News.