AbstractThe navigation of the ESA spacecraft Giotto to its encounter with comet P/Halley on 14 March 1986 required just 10% of the fuel available. Although the spacecraft was damaged by dust impacts during its close flyby at the nucleus of P/Halley it was retargeted to return close to Earth to maintain the option to extend the mission to encounter another comet, P/Grigg-Skjellerup on 10 July 1992.On 2 April 1986 the spacecraft was put into hibernation configuration and had been orbiting the Sun in the ecliptic with an orbital period of 10 months. On 19 February 1990 it was reactivated, spacecraft subsystems and the payload checked out to determine its health status.On 2 July 1990 Giotto performed succesfully the first-ever Earth gravity assist manoeuvre of a spacecraft approaching the Earth from deep space and was retargeted for comet P/Grigg--Skjellerup. It was concluded that the spacecraft is ready to provide valuable data during a potential encounter with a second comet.


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    Title :

    Giotto extended mission


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Advances in Space Research ; 11 , 12 ; 127-131


    Publication date :

    1991-01-01


    Size :

    5 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English



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    GIOTTO EXTENDED MISSION ATTITUDE OPERATIONS

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    Alternative cometary targets for the Giotto extended mission

    Farquhar, R. W. / Dunham, D. W. / Hsu, S. C. | NTRS | 1987