VEGA: En route to Venus and comet Halley

Abstract

On December 15 and 21, 1984, the Soviet Union launched VEGA 1, followed by an almost identical twin, VEGA 2. VEGA (the name is an acronym of “Venus‐Halley,” the two targets of the space probes, in Russian) is the first deep space mission to carry a truly international scientific payload. In addition to the Soviets, who are bearing most of the costs, France and Hungary also played a major role in putting together the complex of instruments. Scientists from Austria, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, Poland, and the United States also have contributed to this very ambitious program. U.S. scientists participate on an individual basis in VEGA: Thomas Cravens and Andrew Nagy of the University of Michigan take part in the particle science team; D. Asoka Mendis of the University of California, San Diego, participates in the spectroscopic team; and Bradford Smith of the University of Arizona is a member of the television science group. John Hsieh of the University of Arizona and John Simpson of the University of Chicago designed detectors for neutral gas and dust, respectively, made jointly with scientists of the Max Planck Society, Federal Republic of Germany (FRG).