( CNN ) -- A spacecraft survived the closest encounter ever with a comet on Thursday , tracking it just 435 miles from the comet 's nucleus . Mission control at NASA 's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena , California , broadcast live coverage of the event on NASA Television 's Media Channel . Controllers broke into applause after hearing of the success . The agency 's EPOXI Deep Impact spacecraft was expected to use two imagers and an infrared instrument to acquire data about a tiny comet named Hartley 2 as it traveled at speeds of more than 27,000 miles per hour . Scientists are still working to determine whether there was any damage to the spacecraft as the peanut-shaped comet passed by . They hope to learn to more about comets from five images detailing the close approach . `` Those early images may not be the 'money shot , ' but we on the science team will prize them just as well , as they will help us further understand the nature of comets , '' said EPOXI principal investigator Mike A'Hearn of the University of Maryland , College Park , in a NASA statement . `` We certainly have our hands full . The images are full of great cometary data , and that 's what we hoped for . '' The images are expected to depict the comet nucleus as little more than a point of light with a fuzzy coma , a gaseous cloud , surrounding it . `` It was just incredible , '' Ed Weiler , associate administrator of the Science Missions Directorate for NASA , said of the encounter . Five years after NASA launched an 800-pound projectile into a comet in an effort to study its contents , the same spacecraft that launched the missile tracked Hartley 2 on Thursday . It is the first spacecraft to have visited two comets . NASA officials expressed hope that such missions will inspire young people to get into the field of space exploration .
Comet Hartley A is just 435 miles from spacecraft . EPOXI Deep Impact is the first spacecraft to have visited two comets . Scientists hope to learn more about them from close imagery .