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Mission Websites

Here we list links to the primary mission website as well as pages about the mission on other sites such as the NSSDC, NASA portal, etc.

Vega 1

The Vega mission combined a rendezvous with comet Halley and an exploration of the atmosphere of Venus. To increase the reliability and the overall return of the science data, the mission consisted of two spacecraft, Vega 1 and Vega 2. They were launched on 15 and 21 December 1984, respectively. On 11 and 15 June 1985, they successfully delivered balloons into the Venus atmosphere. The two spacecraft then successfully encountered Halley on 6 and 9 March 1986. Their closest approaches were 8.89 km and 8.03 km, respectively. They were intended to measure the physical parameters of the nucleus, such as dimensions, shape, temperature and surface properties, as well as to study the structure and dynamics of the coma, the gas composition close to the nucleus, the dust particles' composition and mass distribution as functions of distance to the nucleus and the cometary-solar wind interaction. Spacecraft operations were discontinued a few weeks after the Halley encounters.

The SBN also has data sets from the Vega 2 mission in its archives.

The SBN led the effort to restore and archive data from the Vega missions into the PDS.

Instruments

Data Sets

1P/Halley Encounter

Other Target Observations

Related Datasets

Use the Small Bodies Data Ferret to find other datasets for this mission/target.