On 11 September 1985, the International Cometary Explorer (ICE) spacecraft passed through the plasma tail of Comet Giacobini-Zinner. Due to the nature of its original mission, ICE carried no cameras. It instead carried instruments for measurements of energetic particles, waves, plasmas, and fields. Read more
The International Cometary Explorer (ICE) spacecraft was originally known as International Sun/Earth Explorer 3 (ISEE-3) satellite, launched August 12, 1978. ICE transited between the Sun and Comet Halley on the 28th March 1986, when other spacecraft (Giotto, Vega 1 and 2, Suisei and Sakigake) were in the vicinity of Comet Halley on their early March comet rendezvous missions. ICE flew through the tail and its minimum distance to the comet nucleus was 28 million km. Read more
ISEE-3 was originally launched on August 12, 1978, as the International Sun-Earth Explorer to a halo orbit about one of the Earth-Moon libration points to study Earth's magnetosphere and its interaction with the solar wind. Then, in 1983, it employed several lunar gravity assist flybys to send it on a new journey, for which it was rechristened the International Cometary Explorer, through the tail of comet Giacobini-Zinner. ICE approached within 7,800 kilometres of the comet on September 11, 1985. In 1986, it turned its instruments toward Halley's comet, participating in the international observation campaign, and becoming the first spacecraft to investigate two comets.
At 2049 UTC on September 18, 2008, DSS-14 locked onto the carrier signal of the ISEE-3/ICE spacecraft. The remainder of the 3-hour track was then used to gather Doppler data for future use.