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 to Halley's comet in 1986. There were two spacecraft launched from Japan, named Suisei and Sakigake, and two from the Soviet Union, named Vega 1 & 2. One spacecraft, ICE, was from the United States.

The main mission to Halley's comet, however, was the Giotto mission, from the European Space Agengy.

Each mission flew through different regions of the comet, 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 lots of data on the comet.