Spinning in Private Space

Private space is catching headlines lately – SpaceX regularly delivers groceries and other supplies to the ISS, Virgin Galactic is getting ready for tourist flights to suborbital space, Bigelow Aerospace even has plans for a hotel in orbit.  This past weekend, a flurry of stories extolled a plucky group of private citizens who were able to reactivate a satellite launched by NASA in 1978 and abandoned as space junk in 1997 by the space agency after an illustrious career.  One such story is here:  BetaBeat.com.  It is a great story, and an improbable one.

Attempt to Bring Dead Space Probe Back to Life

NASA’s International Sun-Earth Explorer – 3 (ISEE-3) space-weather probe had a very successful life.  For 19 years (1978 to 1997), it sent NASA a steady stream of information; first about the solar wind and how it interacts with the Earth’s magnetic field and later about comets.  It was ISEE-3 that confirmed the theory that comets are essentially balls of dirty ice.  But since 1997, NASA has ignored it as obsolete – simply hurtling through space in its stable orbit around the sun.  That orbit will bring the probe near the Earth in August of this year.  Sadly, NASA can no longer communicate with ISEE-3 – it decommissioned the necessary equipment about fifteen years ago.