ABSTRACT
When Halley’s Comet approached the sun earlier this year, it was observed by a number of spacecraft. In Europe, publicity concentrated on the European Space Agency’s Giotto space probe, which plunged into the comet’s heart, producing dramatic pictures of its nucleus. Less well publicized was the degree to which this European success was the result of cooperation between the space agencies of Western Europe, the Soviet Union, the United States and Japan. In particular, two Japanese spacecraft (Suisei and Sakigake) carried out part of the longer-range monitoring of the comet and contributed to the eventual success of the European mission.
