Vintage NASA spacecraft completes lunar flyby
12 Aug 2014 6:12 AM IST
The ISEE-3 spacecraft was launched on August 12, 1978 from Cape Canaveral on a Delta II launch vehicle.
A crowd-funded reboot of the spacecraft was carried and a failed attempt was made to put it into Earth’s orbit. The spacecraft made its closest approach to the Earth on August 9 and flyby of the Moon on August 10. Closest approach was 15,600 km from the lunar surface, ‘Universe On Monday’ reported.
With the lunar flyby, Skycorp Inc of Mountain View, California, with help from Google Creative Labs, has announced a revised mission for ISEE-3 to deliver science to the public domain.
ISEE-3 has marked several important milestones and achievements for NASA over the five decades in which it has travelled and monitored the particles and fields between the Earth and the Sun, the report said. However, with NASA no longer interested in recovering the spacecraft, retired and active aerospace engineers began to exchange ideas with avid amateur radio operators around the world.
A crowd-funded reboot of the spacecraft was carried and a failed attempt was made to put it into Earth’s orbit. The spacecraft made its closest approach to the Earth on August 9 and flyby of the Moon on August 10. Closest approach was 15,600 km from the lunar surface, ‘Universe On Monday’ reported.
With the lunar flyby, Skycorp Inc of Mountain View, California, with help from Google Creative Labs, has announced a revised mission for ISEE-3 to deliver science to the public domain.
ISEE-3 has marked several important milestones and achievements for NASA over the five decades in which it has travelled and monitored the particles and fields between the Earth and the Sun, the report said. However, with NASA no longer interested in recovering the spacecraft, retired and active aerospace engineers began to exchange ideas with avid amateur radio operators around the world.
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