This picture shows the spacecraft which flew past Halley's comet. Click on image for full size version (67K JPG) Image courtesy of JPL

Six spacecraft flew by Halley's comet in 1986. There were two spacecraft launched from Japan, Suisei and Sakigake, and two from the Soviet Union, Vega 1 & 2. One spacecraft, ICE, from the United States was re-directed to intercept the comet, and was the last to enter the comet environment. The main mission to Halley's comet, however, was the Giotto mission, a mission sponsored by the European Space Agengy.

All of the missions sampled different regions of the comet environment, as shown in this drawing. The Giotto spacecraft flew closest to the nucleus and recovered several wonderful pictures of the nucleus. Together these missions collected a wealth of data on the comet.