Los Angeles Times (June 25) - Article profiles the 82-year-old spaceflight engineer Bob Farquhar (BS 1959, Aerospace Engineering). Several decades after retiring from NASA, he and a “group of self-described space cowboys have won permission to be the first privately organized group to take control of a retired government satellite and change its orbit.” They will attempt to reactivate the International Sun-Earth Explorer 3 (ISEE-3), a satellite that Farquhar helped launch into space 36 years ago. After a successful crowd-funding campaign to implore NASA to cede control of the satellite, members of the reboot team have used “the massive radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, to establish contact with ISEE-3.” Unfortunately, they are not exactly sure where the satellite currently is in space. Also: ASEE FirstBell (June 26).
Related article: Space News (subscription publication, July 3) -- After failing to activate the International Sun-Earth Explorer (ISEE)-3’s thrusters on July 1, members of the ISEE-3 Reboot Project were able to successfully do so on July 2, setting the stage for a “planned trajectory correction” later this month. Also: The Washington Post (July 7), SPACE (July 3), The Economist (July 3), ASEE FirstBell (July 7).