Citizen scientists revived NASA’s long-retired ISEE-3 probe in 2014 and fired its thrusters for the first time in 27 years, restoring its spin—but the larger burn meant to return it to an Earth–Sun observation point failed because the nitrogen needed to pressurize its fuel system had apparently run out.
In 2014, a spacecraft launched before the first space shuttle flight was approaching Earth for the first time in decades. NASA had ended support for ISEE-3 in 1997. The specialized ground equipment once used to command it had been scrapped and no agency-funded mission was waiting to take over. A publicly funded group of independent … Read more