Comet Missions
Flybys, orbiters, and impactors that explored comets — from Giotto at Halley to Rosetta at 67P.
- GiottoCompletedESA
ESA's first deep-space mission — it flew within about 600 km of the nucleus of Halley's Comet in 1986, returning the first close-up images of a comet's nucleus. It survived the high-speed dust encounter and went on to fly past a second comet, Grigg–Skjellerup.
- Type
- Flyby
- Launched
- 1985-07-02
- Deep Space 1CompletedNASA / JPL
A NASA New Millennium technology-demonstration mission that validated ion propulsion and autonomous navigation, then used them to fly past asteroid 9969 Braille and, most notably, comet 19P/Borrelly — returning some of the best comet-nucleus images of its time.
- Type
- Flyby (technology demonstration)
- Launched
- 1998-10-24
- StardustCompletedNASA / JPL
NASA's comet sample-return mission — it flew through the coma of comet Wild 2, captured dust in aerogel, and parachuted the sample capsule to Earth in 2006: the first sample return from a comet, and the first return of solid material from beyond the Moon (NASA's Genesis had returned solar-wind atoms in 2004). Its extended mission (Stardust-NExT) later imaged the Deep Impact crater on Tempel 1.
- Type
- Flyby · sample return
- Launched
- 1999-02-07
- RosettaCompletedESA
ESA's landmark comet mission — the first to orbit a comet nucleus and, via its Philae lander, the first to soft-land on one. It escorted comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko through perihelion for two years before its own controlled descent to the surface in 2016.
- Type
- Rendezvous · orbiter · lander
- Launched
- 2004-03-02
- Deep ImpactCompletedNASA / JPL / University of Maryland
A NASA Discovery mission that released a 370 kg impactor into the path of comet 9P/Tempel 1 in 2005, excavating material from below the surface while the flyby spacecraft observed the impact — the first look inside a comet.
- Type
- Flyby · impactor
- Launched
- 2005-01-12
- EPOXIExtended missionNASA / JPL
The extended mission of the Deep Impact spacecraft — it flew within about 700 km of the small, hyperactive comet 103P/Hartley 2 in 2010, revealing a peanut-shaped nucleus jetting carbon-dioxide-driven plumes.
- Type
- Flyby (extended mission)
- Comet InterceptorPlannedESA / JAXA
An ESA (with JAXA) fast-class mission that will wait at the Sun–Earth L2 point for a suitable target, then fly by a pristine, dynamically-new comet — ideally one entering the inner Solar System for the first time, or even an interstellar object.
- Type
- Flyby (multi-probe)
- CAESAR (concept)Concept / proposedNASA (proposed; Cornell)
A NASA New Frontiers proposal to return a sample from comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko — the comet Rosetta explored. It was a finalist in the New Frontiers 4 competition but was not selected (Dragonfly was chosen instead).
- Type
- Sample return (proposed)