Vintage NASA spacecraft set for interplanetary probe

Washington: A team of scientists is priming a 36-year-old NASA spacecraft named International Sun-Earth Explorer 3 spacecraft, ISEE-3, to enter new science frontiers. The spacecraft will now travel through interplanetary space after attempts to move the probe into a position closer to the Earth failed as there was not enough nitrogen pressurant left in the probe`s tanks, Space.com reported. The spacecraft was originally launched in 1978 to study interactions between the Earth`s magnetic field and the solar wind. "We were disappointed that we could not put it in the L-1 orbit but we are more interested in interplanetary space," Keith Cowing, a co-leader of the ISEE-3 Reboot Project, was quoted as saying. Even after more than three decades in space, at least five of the 13 instruments on the ISEE-3 are still active. These may help scientists look for gamma-ray bursts which are the brightest explosions in the universe and often take place over just a few minutes. The ISEE-3 Reboot Project plans to turn to crowd sourcing to ask for citizen scientists to set up radio dishes to listen in. ISEE-3 will travel in a 300-day orbit around the sun but the final coordinates are still being determined, the report added.