Sakigake
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Sakigake.gif
Spacecraft Sakigake
Sakigake (MS-T5), was Japan's first interplanetary spacecraft and was lauched January 7, 1985 from Kagoshima Space Center. It carried out a flyby of Comet Halley on March 11, 1986 at a distance of 6.99 million km. There were plans for the spacecraft to go on to an encounter with 21P/Giacobini-Zinner in 1998 but they had to be abandoned due to lack of propellant.
Unlike its twin Suisei it carried no imaging instruments in its instrument payload.
External links
- SAKIGAKE (http://www.isas.ac.jp/e/enterp/missions/complate/sakigake.shtml)
- Halley's Comet Flyby (http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/comets/sakigake.html)