Completed · Success
ESA's Giotto made comet encounters at Halley in 1986 and Grigg-Skjellerup in 1992.
- Destinations
- Launch vehicle
- Ariane
- Launch site
- Kourou, French Guiana
- Countries
- International
- Mission types
- Flyby
Chronology
Mission timeline
Flyby
Encountered Comet Halley
The HMC-based encounter solution quoted in the original ESOC/NAIF source notes gives 596 +/- 2 km and this time +/- 0.2 s. The original predicted ephemeris instead gives 629 km and 00:02:59.5 UTC; the solutions remain distinct.
1P/HalleyFlyby
Giotto returned to Earth for a gravity assist
NSSDCA reports a 16,300 km encounter distance. This event does not itself provide a Cartesian state or complete flight path.
EarthMission end
Giotto operations officially terminated
Mission architecture
Vehicles
Giotto · Spacecraft · completed
Destinations: 1P/Halley, Comet Grigg–Skjellerup, Earth
Trajectory record
Time-dependent navigation trajectory
Source states place the model at the selected time. Reconstructed flight, estimates, predictions and historical mission plans are identified by interval; gaps remain visible.
Source records and sampling assumptions are retained with the repository data. Model attitude and surface appearance are illustrative.
- Giotto: Estimated · March 4, 1986 to March 16, 1986
Provenance
Sources
Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.
Data verified through October 12, 2026
- Giotto - NSSDCA Master Catalog (spacecraft 1985-056A), archived snapshot — NSSDCAArchive · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Giotto overview - European Space Agency — ESAMission page · Supports: mission claims · destination/body context · event claims
- Giotto original spacecraft, damage and extended-mission chronology — NSSDCAMission page · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Giotto original EXSUP5 transcription, source time grid and matched Halley geometry — NAIFArchive · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- Giotto original EXSUP5 predicted positions and later encounter solutions — ESATechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- Giotto original cruise spin-axis attitude and reception-time convention — ESATechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- Giotto encounter attitude, spin and unavailable telemetry intervals — ESATechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- Giotto original experimenter quadratic position and derived velocity reader — ESATechnical document · Supports: mission claims
- Giotto facts and figures - ESA Science & Technology — ESATechnical document · Supports: mission claims · event claims
- 1P/Halley - NASA Science — NASAMission page · Supports: destination/body context
- Planet Sizes and Locations in Our Solar System — NASAOther · Supports: destination/body context