Space Dream Revived in an Abandoned McDonald’s, Bloomberg View
“Can a group of citizen scientists working out of an abandoned California McDonald’s re-energize U.S. space exploration? Thirty years ago, that question would have been the basis for a science-fiction novel, at best. Today, however, not only are the scientists and the McDonald’s real, but the group has also commandeered a 36-year-old NASA space probe bound for an August fly-by of the Earth and moon.”
The ancient mariner – A group of enthusiasts are waking up an old satellite, Economist
“The ISEE-3 Reboot Project, as these enthusiasts call themselves, exists to revive an old spacecraft. A very old one. It was launched in 1978, and has thus spent almost two-thirds of the entire space age, which began in 1957 with the launch of Sputnik, in orbit around the sun. But in 1997 NASA decided ISEE-3 had done its job as a solar observatory and comet-chaser, and shut it down. Just in case somebody in the future wanted to try to revive it, the shutdown left the craft in standby mode. And that, as their name suggests, is what the Rebooters are trying to do.”