Giotto mission

Giotto spacecraft illustration (NASA)
larger version

Giotto was an unmanned space mission from the European Space Agency, intended to fly by and study the Comet Halley. On March 13, 1986, Giotto approached Halley to 596 kilometer.

Giotto also flew by the Comet Grigg-Skjellerup[?], which it approached to ca. 200 kilometer.

The spacecraft was named after the mediaval painter Giotto di Bondone from Italy. Giotto di Bondone painted the star of Bethlehem[?] as the Halley comet.

Links:

• Official site (http://sci.esa.int/home/giotto/)