Image of Giotto spacecraft.
The Giotto spacecraft was launched on July 2, 1985, on a mission to fly by Halley's comet and send back the first pictures of a comet's center.
Giotto's encounter with Halley came on Mar. 13, 1986 at a distance of 596 km (370 miles). This was the closest approach of all six spacecrafts which visited the comet that year, including Sakigake and Suisei.
After four years of inactivity, Giotto was given new instructions and directed toward comet Grigg-Skjellerup. It arrived on July 10, 1992, coming within 200 km of the comet.
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