Launched July 2, 1985 by the European Space Agency, the spacecraft Giotto made its closest approach to Halley's Comet, March 14, 1986. Giotto passed less than 600 km from the comet's nucleus and sent back stunning pictures. It survived several impacts from small objects and one even knocked it off its axis so its antenna did not point toward Earth and its on-board instruments were not protected by its dust shield.
Thirty-two minutes later it re-oriented itself and continued sending back data. The Halley Multicolor Camera was destroyed by an impact but not before Giotto made its closest approach.
The following day, ESA turned off its instruments until July 2, 1990 when Giotto was reactivated so it could make a flyby of Comet Grigg-Skjellerup in July 1992, making it the first probe to visit two comets.
Giotto was part of a "Halley Armada" which was composed of several probes from different space agencies. The Soviets sent Vega 1 and Vega 2. Vega 1 made its closes approach, just under 9000 km, on March 6 and Vega 2 followed on March 9.
The Japanese also sent two, Sagigake (March 11) and Suisei (March 8), but their closest approaches were about 1M km.
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