Giotto

retired ESA spacecraft which visited Comets Halley and Grigg-Skjellerup

Key facts

Mission type: Cometary flyby
Operator: European Space Agency
Cospar id: 1985-056A
Website: www.esa.int
Mission duration: 7 years, 21 days
Spacecraft type: GEOS
Manufacturer: British Aerospace
Launch mass: 960 kg
Power: 196 W
Launch date: 11:23, 2 July 1985 (UTC) ( 1985-07-02T11:23:00Z )
Rocket: Ariane 1 V-14
Launch site: Kourou ELA-1
Contractor: Arianespace
Disposal: Decommissioned
Deactivated: 23 July 1992 ( 1992-07-23 )
Reference system: Heliocentric
Perihelion altitude: 0.73 AU
Aphelion altitude: 1.04 AU

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Diameter: 1.85
Mass: 960
Orbital period: 304.6
Official website: sci.esa.int/giotto
Image: Giotto Whipple shield ESA239195.jpg
Height: 2.85

Show 7 more facts

UTC date of spacecraft launch: 1985-07-02
Commons category: Giotto (spacecraft)
orbital eccentricity: 0.17334
orbital inclination: 2.09
apoapsis: 1.04
periapsis: 0.73
semi-major axis of an orbit: 0.885

Sources (9)

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Article

Giotto was a European robotic spacecraft mission from the European Space Agency. The spacecraft flew by and studied Halley's Comet and in doing so became the first spacecraft to make close up observations of a comet. On 13 March 1986, the spacecraft succeeded in approaching Halley's nucleus at a distance of 596 kilometers. It was named after the Early Italian Renaissance painter Giotto di Bondone. He had observed Halley's Comet in 1301 and was inspired to depict it as the star of Bethlehem in his painting Adoration of the Magi in the Scrovegni Chapel.

Mission