Citizen Scientists to Resurrect Defunct NASA Spacecraft

For the first time, NASA has agreed to work with a group of citizen scientists to resurrect a spacecraft the agency is no longer using and has no plans to use again.

NASA announced that the agency has signed a Non-Reimbursable Space Act Agreement (NRSAA) with Skycorp, Inc., a space systems company based in Los Gatos, California, on Wednesday

The NRSAA allows Skycorp, Inc., to attempt to communicate with and possibly control the International Sun-Earth Explorer-3 (ISEE-3) spacecraft.

The ISEE-3 was launched in 1978 to study solar winds streaming to Earth — it completed this primary mission in 1981. NASA then redirected the spacecraft to observe comets with the remaining fuel and instruments. After completing that second mission, the ISEE-3 was put into orbit around the Sun. NASA ended the ISEE-3's second mission on May 5, 1997 and shut down the spacecraft Read more...