Keith’s note: Below is an email from Todd Kramer. His father Richard Kramer died recently. Richard Kramer had a long career in the space business and worked on the ISEE-3 spacecraft in Maryland back in the 1970s. This note embodies a special connection his family had with space – something that I, as a on-and-off space person, can firmly attest to since I have had one myself.

NASA might turn over management of the Spitzer Space Telescope, one of the Great Observatories, to private operator. https://t.co/tCXmQyJHjf pic.twitter.com/p8aMdrzwgB — Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) July 22, 2017 At @NASA, we continue to explore new ways to maximize science/$. Wonder whether there are interested parties, finding the next #TRAPPIST1 .. https://t.co/O0M1ez40Qa — Thomas Zurbuchen (@Dr_ThomasZ) July 22, 2017 Keith’s 23 July note: It would seem that the precedents set by GALEX […]

Keith’s note: My friend Robert Farquhar left this life today. He orbited the sun 83 times. He was big on orbits and designed some of the most esoteric and complex spacecraft trajectories ever attempted which were executed with stunning precision. Between ISEE-3’s crazy trips around the inner solar system to the recent flyby of Pluto, Bob had a hand in many missions. The ISEE-3 Reboot effort during which I got […]

ISEE-3 Is In Safe Mode “The ground stations listening to ISEE-3 have not been able to obtain a signal since Tuesday the 16th. Arecibo, Morehead, Bochum, SETI, as well as the Usuda 64 meter dish in Japan and the Algonquin 45 meter dish in Canada have all pointed at the spacecraft with no positive results. So, at this time we are assuming that the spacecraft has gone into safe mode.”

Emerging Space: The Evolving Landscape of 21st Century American Spaceflight, PDF, NASA Office of the Chief Technologist “Crowdfunding offers space organizations avenues for fundraising outside traditional institutional methods. Sites like Kickstarter.com, Rockethub.com, and Indiegogo.com allow space companies to tap the financial resources of private citizens interested in space exploration. In addition to providing crucial funds for the companies, crowd funding allows citizens to directly engage in space exploration by funding […]

Space Crowdfunding: What’s the Secret?, Winners and losers among the space start-ups, Air and Space “I had guys clambering over the [radio antenna] dish in Arecibo [Puerto Rico], hanging hardware while people were still giving money, and people were saying, ‘This is great!’ ” he says. “I was live-tweeting everything we did. Every geeky expression that happened in the control room I threw out there, and people were telling me […]

Civilians steer NASA satellite from an old McDonald’s, Cnet “I hadn’t been aware that, if you ask NASA nicely, you’ll be allowed to take the controls of a satellite floating in outer space. Clearly, I need to get out more, as this is what a group of very interested civilians are doing from their headquarters in a McDonald’s.” ISEE-3 Becomes A Spacecraft For All In Today’s Lunar Flyby, io9 “Our […]

Join the hangout live as the ISEE-3 spacecraft makes it’s long-awaited lunar flyby after 36 years in interplanetary space. Flip between the 3D realtime trajectory and the live video program. Live from ISEE-3 Reboot headquarters, a special moderated by The Sky at Night’s Chris Lintott and featuring scientists and experts from around the world all brought together for this historic event. Sunday, August 10th 10:30am PT – 12:00pm PT Go […]

Google Creative Lab and ISEE-3 Reboot Team Announce New Citizen Science Website “We are excited to let all of you know about the newly announced collaboration between the ISEE-3 Reboot Project and Google. The main feature of this is a new website developed by Google Creative Lab in collaboration with the ISEE-3 Reboot Project team that features a history of the ISEE-3 mission as well as a presentation of data […]

ISEE-3 Science Status Report 7 August 2014 “As promised, the time of closest approach to the Moon is 18:16 UTC (on Sunday, 10 August). Vassilis Angelopolous at UCLA is now involved. He has two spacecraft in lunar orbit and is planning to acquire data during the ISEE flyby in a special telemetry mode. That should add immeasurably to the scientific results. The telemetry signal continues to improve. There is still […]