Vega 2

Mission Profile

Vega 2 was a Soviet spacecraft launched on 21 December 1984 aboard a Proton-K rocket on a dual-target mission to both Venus and Halley's Comet, part of the Vega program conducted jointly with France and other Eastern Bloc countries. After releasing a landing probe and balloon at Venus in June 1985, the flyby spacecraft was redirected by Venusian gravity assist toward Halley's Comet, encountering it on 9 March 1986 at a closest approach of 8,030 km. Vega 2's cameras and spectrometers imaged the peanut-shaped nucleus, measured the dust and gas production rate, and detected organic compounds in the coma — together with Vega 1's data forming the most complete pre-Giotto characterization of any cometary nucleus. The Vega missions provided the navigation data that allowed ESA's Giotto probe to make its closer 600 km flyby three days later.