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International Cometary Explorer
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<p>The International Cometary Explorer (ICE) spacecraft, designed and launched as the International Sun-Earth Explorer-3 (ISEE-3) satellite, was launched on 12 August 1978 into a <a href="/facts/Heliocentric_orbit/b4zMv2jE">heliocentric orbit</a>. It was one of three spacecraft, along with the mother/daughter pair of <a href="/facts/ISEE-1/HXPt6Cqv">ISEE-1</a> and <a href="/facts/ISEE-2/1S0uaSvm">ISEE-2</a>, built for the International Sun-Earth Explorer (ISEE) program, a joint effort by <a href="/facts/NASA/TIMCV0yV">NASA</a> and <a href="/facts/European_Space_Research_Organisation/bbNlK2fW">ESRO</a>/<a href="/facts/European_Space_Agency/L8YRNV0C">ESA</a> to study the interaction between the <a href="/facts/Earth%27s_magnetic_field/73G36wmx">Earth's magnetic field</a> and the <a href="/facts/Solar_wind/BvuB3dT8">solar wind</a>. </p><p>ISEE-3 was the first spacecraft to be placed in a <a href="/facts/Halo_orbit/NnTW9mnT">halo orbit</a> at the L1 Earth-Sun <a href="/facts/Lagrange_point/XCAN4o3P">Lagrange point</a>. Renamed ICE, it became the first spacecraft to visit a <a href="/facts/Comet/w34utQCd">comet</a>, passing through the plasma tail of comet <a href="/facts/21P/Giacobini%E2%80%93Zinner/z4uooeDH">Giacobini-Zinner</a> within about 7,800 km (4,800 mi) of the nucleus on 11 September 1985. </p><p>NASA suspended routine contact with ISEE-3 in 1997 and made brief status checks in 1999 and 2008. </p><p>On 29 May 2014, two-way communication with the spacecraft was reestablished by the ISEE-3 Reboot Project, an unofficial group, with support from the Skycorp company and SpaceRef Interactive. On 2 July 2014, they fired the thrusters for the first time since 1987. However, later firings of the thrusters failed, apparently due to a lack of nitrogen pressure in the fuel tanks. The project team initiated an alternative plan to use the spacecraft to "collect scientific data and send it back to Earth", but on 16 September 2014, contact with the probe was lost. </p>