September 11, 2022
On this date in 1985, NASA’s International Cometary Explorer (ICE) made its programmed flyby of Comet Giacobini-Zinner. ICE performed both a flyby of the comet nucleus and a pass through the comet’s plasma tail. ICE was the first spacecraft to directly investigate a comet, and after an encounter with Halley’s Comet, became the first to investigate two comets.
An artist’s interpretation of the International Comet Explorer (ICE) on its way to Comet Giacobini-Zinner. Image credit: NASA