ISEE-3 / International Cometary Explorer
ISEE-3 was a NASA heliophysics observatory placed in the first halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L1 point. After its original solar-wind and magnetotail work, it was renamed International Cometary Explorer and redirected to a comet encounter.
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Identity
- Aliases
- ISEE-3International Sun-Earth Explorer 3International Cometary ExplorerICEISEE-CExplorer 59
- Name
- ISEE-3 / International Cometary Explorer
- Status
- completed
Details
- Astronauts
- -
- Description
- ISEE-3 was a NASA heliophysics observatory placed in the first halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L1 point. After its original solar-wind and magnetotail work, it was renamed International Cometary Explorer and redirected to a comet encounter.
- Destination
- Sun–Earth L1 halo orbit and Earth’s magnetotail, followed by a heliocentric trajectory to Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner and upstream solar-wind observations of Halley’s comet
- End Date
- 1997-05-05
- Launch Site
- Outcome
- The spacecraft completed pioneering L1 and magnetotail observations, became the first probe to fly past a comet at Giacobini-Zinner on September 11, 1985, and supplied upstream solar-wind data for the Halley campaign. NASA ended operations on May 5, 1997.
- Programs
- Start Date
- 1978-08-12
- Vehicle Families
Links
- Official Url
- https://science.nasa.gov/mission/isee-3-ice/
Assets & Meta
- Creation Time
- July 18, 2026 at 13:08:46 UTC
- Updated Time
- August 22, 2026 at 15:23:47 UTC
- Image
- Download
Other
- Affiliations
- Search Name
- ISEE-3 / International Cometary Explorer ISEE-3 International Sun-Earth Explorer 3 International Cometary Explorer ICE ISEE-C Explorer 59
- Space Stations
- -
- Vehicles