ISEE_3: NASA Spacecraft Buzzes the Moon Today After 36 Years in Space

ISEE-3, a 36-year-old NASA spacecraft will begin a new interplanetary science mission today (Aug. 10) when it makes a close pass by the moon.

The privately controlled International Sun-Earth Explorer 3 spacecraft, also called ISEE-3, will fly by the moon at 2:16 p.m. EDT (1816 GMT).

You can follow the lunar flyby live in a Google Hangout beginning at 1:30 p.m. EDT (1730 GMT) on the website SpacecraftforAll.com.

The ISEE-3 spacecraft is under the control of ISEE-3 Reboot Project, a private team of engineers took control of the probe earlier this year under an agreement with NASA.

The team initially hoped to move the NASA probe into a stable orbit near the Earth. But attempts failed when the team discovered that the spacecraft, which NASA launched in 1978, was out of the nitrogen pressurant needed to get the job done.

A vintage NASA spacecraft, the International Sun-Earth Explorer 3 launched in 1978, will fly by the moon on Aug. 10, 2014 after 36 years in space. 

The volunteer ISEE-3 Reboot Project and Google Creative Lab have teamed up to offer a live webcast of the 36-year-old spacecraft's lunar flyby. 

Credit: SpacecraftforAll.com

Now, ISEE-3 Reboot Project engineers are focusing their efforts on an interplanetary science mission, since at least some of the probe's 13 instruments are still working.

By using a network of individual radio dishes across the world, the team will listen to the ISEE-3 spacecraft for most of its orbit around the sun.

Officials announced this week that they would collaborate with Google to offer live spacecraft data at the site SpacecraftForAll.com.

Financial terms were not disclosed. Chris Lintott, of the BBC's "The Sky at Night," will moderate the Google Hangout on ISEE-3 today.

"The main feature of this is a new website developed by Google Creative Lab in collaboration with the ISEE-3 Reboot Project team that features a history of the ISEE-3 mission as well as a presentation of data currently being received from ISEE-3," co-founder Keith Cowing said in a statement.

The spacecraft was originally launched in 1978 to study the sun, and was retasked for other science missions such as looking at comets.

NASA put ISEE-3 into hibernation in 1998, where it remained until the private group reactivated it this year under a Space Act Agreement.

Members raised about $160,000 through crowdfunding, most of which is gone due to the need to rent dish time at NASA's Deep Space Network to listen in, and to fly team members to the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico for communications.

NASA ISEE-3 (ICE) spacecraft: Private Group Fund Satellite Reboot Project

Artist's concept image of ISEE-3 (ICE) spacecraft.

Credit: NASA

Red tape and a moderate earthquake did not deter a private group from meeting its goal of making contact with ISEE-3, a 36-year-old NASA spacecraft that has been slumbering in deep space since 1997.

Now, members are trying to redirect the path of the vintage International Sun-Earth Explorer 3 (ISSE-3) probe before it's too late.

The engineers, programmers and citizen scientists, working under the name ISEE-3 Reboot Project, "spoke" with the probe Thursday (May 29) using the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.

This was after a 5.8-magnitude earthquake shook the area earlier this week during testing, temporarily shutting down telescope operations.

Keith Cowing

"It took a lot of preparation and perseverance," said co-leader Keith Cowing, who remained behind in Virginia for co-ordination while other co-lead Dennis Wingo worked at Arecibo.

Wingo's team has at the Arecibo Observatory for two weeks and is expected to leave Friday (May 30).

The team technically had the capability to command the spacecraft last Friday (May 23), but under a Space Act Agreement with NASA had to have the agency's approval before making the move. That approval finally came through Thursday (May 29).

Dennis Wingo

Cowing acknowledged waiting for approval took longer than he hoped, but said given it's the first time a private group wanted to do something like this, he could appreciate the agency's caution.

Luckily for the group, their preparation worked: first contact went off without a hitch, with the spacecraft responding to a tone exactly as expected. "I'm doing my happy dance," Cowing said.

NASA's International Sun-Earth Explorer (ISEE-3) was undergoing testing and evaluation inside Goddard's dynamic test chamber when this photo was taken. 

Working inside a dynamic test chamber, Goddard engineers wear protective "clean room" clothing to prevent microscopic dust particles from damaging the sophisticated instrumentation. 

NASA launched the 16-sided polyhedron, which weighed 1,032 lbs. (469 kg.), from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on August 12, 19 

This illustration shows the trajectory of the ISEE-3-ICE Trajectory spacecraft. 

Credit: NAS 

The ISEE-3 Reboot Crew After Signal Confirmation on USRP Radio

ISEE-3: Crowdfunding Goal To Reboot 36-Year-Old NASA Probe

A private team is preparing to make contact with a 36-year-old NASA spacecraft after reaching its $125,000 crowdfunding goal on Wednesday (May 14).

The ambitious private project, the first of its type, is attempting to reuse the International Sun-Earth Explorer 3 probe (ISEE-3), which launched in 1978 and ceased science operations in 1997.

ISEE-3/ICE Trajectory through 1986

Engineers are now planning to make course corrections with the spacecraft no later than mid-June, as ISEE-3 makes a close approach to Earth.

First contact, using the huge Arecibo Observatory radio dish in Puerto Rico,is planned next week.

Meeting these deadlines is pivotal, because the spacecraft won't return for another 30 to 40 years, team members say.

Artist's concept of the ISEE-3 probe's anticipated lunar flyby on Aug. 10, 2014.

Credit: Mark Maxwell / ISEE-3 Reboot Project

"Next week is crucial to the success of our project," project co-leader Dennis Wingo wrote in an update after the crowdfunding goal was reached.

"Using the dish at Arecibo gives us the best chance of being able to command the spacecraft in the very near term," Wingo added.

Track of the ISEE-3/ICE Spacecraft The Sky Mid May 2014

"Every day is exceedingly important to us right now. The spacecraft gets about the distance from the Earth to the moon closer each day, and now every day the amount of propulsion burn it takes to make the trajectory correction grows."

He added that, in all likelihood, the team will need even more money to extend ISEE-3's mission.

The team intends to move the spacecraft to the Earth-sun Lagrange Point 1 (ES-1), a gravitationally stable spot about 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) away from Earth. But what ISEE-3 will end up doing is not known at this point. It could chase down a comet or study space weather, project leaders have said.