Vega 2

By Marty McDowell/NASA

On December 21, 1984, the Soviet Union launched Vega 2. As with Vega 1, this mission sent a balloon into the dense Venusian atmosphere and made a close flyby of Halley's Comet. The transmissions from the balloon lasted a remarkable 46 1/2 hours.

This spacecraft mission combined a Venus swingby and a Comet Halley flyby. Two identical spacecraft, Vega 1 and Vega 2, were launched December 15 and 21, 1984, respectively. After carrying Venus entry probes to the vicinity of Venus (arrival and deployment of probes were scheduled for June 11-15, 1985), the two spacecraft were retargeted using Venus gravity field assistance to intercept Comet Halley in March 1986.

The first spacecraft encountered Comet Halley on March 6, 1986, and the second three days later. The flyby velocity was 77.7 km/s. Although the spacecraft could be targeted with a precision of 100 km, the position of the spacecraft relative to the comet nucleus was estimated to be known only to within a few thousand kilometers. This, together with the problem of dust protection, led to estimated flyby distances of 10,000 km for the first spacecraft and 3000 km for the second.

Source: NASA.

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Space References (Videos):
Cosmos. PBS, 2000.
Stephen Hawking's Universe. PBS, 1997.
Hyperspace. BBC, 2002.
Life Beyond Earth PBS, 1999.
The Planets. BBC, 1999.
Understanding The Universe. A&E, 1996.