CONTOUR vs ISEE-3 / ICE

CONTOUR (Comet Nucleus Tour) was a NASA Discovery-program spacecraft launched on a Delta II rocket in July 2002 to make close flybys of comet nuclei, starting with comet Encke in 2003 and Schwassmann–Wachmann 3 in 2006. On 15 August 2002, during the burn of its solid-fuel rocket motor intended to send it out of Earth orbit, contact was lost and the craft apparently broke apart; telescopes later im...

ISEE-3 (International Sun-Earth Explorer 3) was a NASA spacecraft launched on August 12, 1978, originally placed in a halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange point, making it the first spacecraft stationed at a Lagrange point. In 1982 it was redirected and renamed the International Cometary Explorer (ICE). On September 11, 1985, ICE passed through the plasma tail of comet Giacobini-Zinner, bec...