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| ISEE-3 image (source: NASA) |
The third International Solar-Environment Explorer (ISEE-3) was the first spacecraft to monitor solar wind, while it was perched in orbit between the Sun and the Earth.
Everyone But NASA Wants To Wake Up This Long-Dormant Spacecraft | Motherboard: "...In 1997, the ICE mission operations were terminated, although the spacecraft's on-board instrumentation was still working and there was still fuel available. NASA's Deep Space Network checked in with the ISEE-3 back in 2008, and its spacecraft's transmitter remains on, but that's all that's really known at this point. It had a second life as a comet hunter, though, so why not a third? "It's the most cost-effective spacecraft we ever had and I'd like to make it even more cost-effective. It can do more missions," said Bob Farquhar, the "orbit maestro" who originally turned the ISEE-3 into the ICE and got America to a comet before any other country...."
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