Table 1
Spacecraft that have encountered comets
Spacecraft
Agency
Target
Type of
encounter
Date of
fly-by/
rendezvous
Closest
approach
General
Reference
Comment
ICE (originally
ISEE-3)
NASA
21P/GiacobiniZinner
Fly-by
11 Sept. 1985
7800 km
Farquhar
(1983);
Cowley (1987)
First
fly-by of a comet
1P/Halley
Far
fly-by
End March 1986
28 Mkm
Vega 1
Roscosmos 1P/Halley
Fly-by
6 March 1986
8889 km
Sagdeev et al.
(1986)
Vega 2
Roscosmos 1P/Halley
Fly-by
9 March 1986
8030 km
Sakigake
JAXA
1P/Halley
Far
fly-by
11 March 1986
6.99 Mkm Hirao (1986)
Suisei
JAXA
1P/Halley
Fly-by
8 March 1986
151,000
km
Giotto
ESA
1P/Halley
Fly-by
13 March 1986
596 km
Reinhard
(1986)
Closest
fly-by of 1P and
highest resolution data
Deep Space 1
NASA
19P/Borrelly
Fly-by
22 Sept. 2001
2171 km
Boice et al.
(2002)
Stardust
NASA
81P/Wild 2
Fly-by
2 Jan. 2004
237 km
Brownlee et al.
(2003)
Deep Impact
NASA
9P/Tempel 1
Fly-by and
impact
4 Jul. 2005
575 km
A’Hearn et al.
(2005)
First impactor on a comet
EPOXI
(Deep Impact)
NASA
103P/Hartley 2
Fly-by
4 Nov. 2010
700 km
A’Hearn et al.
(2011)
Re-use of Deep Impact
spacecraft
NExT
(Stardust)
NASA
9P/Tempel 1
Fly-by
15 Feb. 2011
181 km
Veverka et al.
(2013)
Re-use of the Stardust
spacecraft
Rosetta
ESA
67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko
Rendezvous 6 Aug. 2014 to
30 Sept. 2016
0 km
(impact)
Glassmeier
et al. (2007)
First rendezvous
Preface (Motivation and Scope)
xiii