NASA’s International Sun-Earth Explorer-3 (ISEE-3) conducted the first deep survey of Earth’s magnetic tail. Then, after a series of complex flybys of the Moon, the spacecraft was renamed the International Cometary Explorer (ICE) and became the first spacecraft to fly past a comet (Giacobini-Zinner).

Location

Magnetotail and lunar space

Type

Research

Schedule

1978-1997

Status

Completed

Partners

University of Maryland, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Arizona, Imperial College London