Giotto spacecraft flies by Halley's Comet 1986

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.

Japan launches Suisei spacecraft for Halley's Comet flyby 1985

Japan launched its second deep space probe, Suisei (formerly know as Planet-A) August 18, 1985 to study Halley's Comet on March 8, 1986.  It was part of the "Halley Armada" with Soviet and French probes, the European Space Agency and NASA.  The first probe, Sakigake, was launched in January of 1985.  Suisei carried an ultra-violet based imaging system to study the hydrogen corona around Halley's Comet and instruments to measure solar wind.

Japanese scientists planned to send Suisei to encounter Giacobini-Zinner in November 1998, but its hydrazine fuel was depleted February 22, 1991.

Suisei (Japanese for Comet) was developed by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, which is now part of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency.

http://history.nasa.gov/monograph24/1985.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suisei_(spacecraft)