Mission record

Giotto

European Space Agency · Launched July 2, 1985

Completed · Success

ESA's Giotto made comet encounters at Halley in 1986 and Grigg-Skjellerup in 1992.

Destinations: 1P/Halley Show 1P/Halley in the explorer
Comet Grigg–Skjellerup Show Comet Grigg–Skjellerup in the explorer
Launch vehicle: Ariane
Launch site: Kourou, French Guiana
Countries: International
Mission types: Flyby

Chronology

Mission timeline

July 2, 1985
Launch
Launched from Kourou on an Ariane
Earth
March 1986
Flyby
Encountered Comet Halley
NSSDCA dates the encounter 13 March 1986, while ESA dates it 14 March 1986. The event remains at month precision rather than select between the two cited sources.
1P/Halley
July 10, 1992
Flyby
Encountered Comet Grigg-Skjellerup
Comet Grigg–Skjellerup
July 23, 1992
Mission end
Giotto operations officially terminated

Mission architecture

Giotto · Spacecraft · completed
Destinations: 1P/Halley, Comet Grigg–Skjellerup

Trajectory record

No verified trajectory dataset is committed for this mission, so Mission Atlas renders no path.

Provenance

Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.

Data verified through September 4, 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
1P/Halley - NASA Science — NASAMission page · Supports: destination/body context
Planet Sizes and Locations in Our Solar System — NASAOther · Supports: destination/body context