Cometary satellites

Below are checklists of cometary satellites, launch dates, and images of the satellites. Many solar and inter-planetary satellites are listed under the scientific/research discipline/category on this Website. Also, cometary satellites (such as Explorer-59/ISEE-3/ICE) that are part of mostly non-cometary series (in this case the Explorer-series) are found listed under those series rather than separating them out of those series or listing them twice. This is a work in progress, and completeness is our goal. If readers know of additional information or images, please contact the authors using the e-mail addresses at the bottom of this page.

Satellite series covered on this page:

Japanese Planet-series satellites:

Satellite	Launch Date	Images
		reference	launch covers	postal items
Planet-prototype (Planet-A1) / Sakigake / MS-T5	1985-01-08	Planet-A1	Planet	Planet
Planet-A (Planet-A2) / Suisei	1985-08-18	Planet-A
Planet-B / Nozomi	1998-07-03	Planet-B

Russian Vega (VEnera GAllei) series satellites:

Satellite	Launch Date	Images
		reference	launch covers	postal items
Vega-1	1984-12-15	Vega-1	Vega	Vega
Vega-2	1984-12-21

Other (selected) U.S. cometary satellites:

Satellite	Launch Date	Images
		reference	launch covers	postal items
CRAF	Canceled	CRAF		CRAF
Deep Space-1	1998-10-24	Deep Space-1	Deep Space	Deep Space
Stardust / Discovery-4	1999-02-07	Stardust	Stardust	Stardust
Contour / Discovery-6 [failed]	2002-07-03	Contour	Contour
Deep Impact / Discovery-7	2005-01-12	Deep Impact	Deep Impact	Deep Impact

Other (selected) non-U.S. cometary satellites:

Satellite	Country	Launch Date	Images
			reference	launch covers	postal items
Giotto	Europe (ESA)	1985-07-02	Giotto Giotto	Giotto	Giotto
Rosetta	Europe (ESA)	2004-03-02	Rosetta	Rosetta	Rosetta

Links to cometary satellite information:

(The links below lead to information sources that are maintained by others. They are not part of this Website.)

• UCAR: Comet Missions

Back to Un-Manned Satellite Philately.