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Orbiter 2010:Giotto

10mo ago
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Giotto was a European robotic spacecraft mission from the European Space Agency, intended to fly by and study Halley's Comet. On 13 March 1986, the mission succeeded in approaching Halley's nucleus at a distance of 596 kilometers. The spacecraft 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. * Giotto made the closest approach to Halley comet and provided the best data for this comet. * Giotto was the first spacecraft to provide pictures of a cometary nucleus. * Giotto was the first spacecraft do a close flyby of two comets. Young and active comet Halley could be compared to old Grigg-Skjellerup. * Giotto was the first spacecraft to return from interplanetary space and perform an Earth swing by. * Giotto was the first spacecraft to be re-activated from hibernation mode. Giotto was commanded to wake up on 2 July 1990 when it flew by Earth in order to sling shot to its next cometary encounter. The probe then flew by the Comet Grigg-Skjellerup in 10 July 1992 which it approached to a distance of about 200 kilometres. Afterwards, Giotto was again switched off on 23 July 1992. Information provided by Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giotto_mission P.S. Encounter with comet Grigg-Skjellerup not shown.