2.2.6 spase://CDPP/Observatory/AMDA/ICE ICE International Cometary Explorer : Giacobini-Zinner Flyby 2010-09-27T18:45:12Z The International Cometary Explorer (ICE) spacecraft (designed and launched as the International Sun/Earth Explorer 3 (ISEE-3) satellite), was launched August 12, 1978, into a heliocentric orbit. It was one of three spacecraft, along with the mother/daughter pair of ISEE-1 and ISEE-2, built for the International Sun-Earth Explorer (ISEE) program, a joint effort by NASA and ESRO/ESA to study the interaction between the Earth's magnetic field and the solar wind. ISEE-3 was the first spacecraft to be placed in a halo orbit at the L1 Earth-Sun Lagrangian point. Renamed ICE, it became the first spacecraft to visit a comet, passing through the tail of Comet Giacobini-Zinner within about 7,800 km of the nucleus. NASA suspended routine contact with ISEE-3 in 1997, and made brief status checks in 1999 and 2008. On May 29, 2014, two-way communication with the spacecraft was reestablished by the ISEE-3 Reboot Project, an unofficial group[4] with support from the Skycorp company. On July 2, 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 pressurant in the fuel tanks.[8][9] The project team will pursue an alternative plan to use the spacecraft to "collect scientific data and send it back to Earth. ProjectScientist Comet