Jul 15 1980
From The Space Library
The Wall Street Journal said that ESA would go ahead with a $125 million probe of Halley’s Comet because original plans for a $370-$470 million joint mission with NASA had become impossible due to U.S. budget cuts. The original plan called for launch of a Space Shuttle that would have sent a satellite to Halley's as well as to Tempel 2, a comet much farther out in space.
NASA had to scrub the two-comet mission because it couldn't get the money for a new kind of space engine to make the flight; the Wall Street Journal said that it was still studying a stopgap plan to use an old-fashioned rocket to shoot a spacecraft past Halley's when it approached Earth. ESA now planned to put up a 750-pound satellite, Giotto [see July 10], from Kourou in July 1985 to rendezvous with Halley's in March 1986. (WSJ, July 15180, 30)
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