Provided with technical data from NASA, and working at the Arecibo observatory in Puerto Rico, the team of scientists, who go by the name of the ISEE-3 Reboot Project, have been able to communicate with the satellite but have been hindered in their work since it does not possess the memory storage capabilities developed since 1978 . According to The Economist, the satellite team – which included the original mission’s flight dynamicist - successfully fired the craft’s propulsion system this week for the first time since 1987, pulling it out of a graveyard orbit around Earth and setting it on a usable course. They increased the roll rate from 19.16 revolutions per minute to 19.76 RPM, putting it within mission specifications for trajectory corrections. According to the scientists and engineers, all commands must be sent one message at a time and then they must wait for an acknowledgement before proceeding to the next step. The first science data in 29 years was received days ago from the craft's magnetometer. The group hopes their efforts will ignite interest in space exploration and research at an time when funding is drying up, as well as possibly having the satellite resume its original task of watching the sun. The group will be consulting shortly with NASA for its "authorisation to proceed" for its next thruster firings.
– A satellite originally launched in 1978 is getting a new lease on life after NASA stopped using it. NASA shut down the satellite, called ISEE-3, in 1997, and it's been spinning uselessly around the sun for years. But a crowdfunded team of "citizen scientists" last month got NASA's permission to use it again for research, the Raw Story reports. In May, they were able to communicate with it, the Economist reports, and this week, they relaunched its propulsion systems. Now, it's once again rolling at its intended speed, the Economist notes, and the team plans to alter its trajectory next week, NBC News reports. So what will the experts do with it? For one thing, they're hoping to show off the power of modern technology: Tasks that once required giant infrastructures can now be achieved with software-based radios, the Economist notes. What's more, the experts are hoping to fuel renewed interest in space exploration.