Sun  ID: 4161

ISEE-3 (ICE) Revisits Earth

Visualizations by Tom Bridgman Released on April 14, 2014
ISEE-3 (International Sun-Earth Explorer) was a mission launched in 1978 and was the first spacecraft to orbit the Earth-Sun L1 (Wikipedia: Lagrange) point.

Its primary mission complete, it was renamed the International Cometary Explorer (ICE) and its orbit was altered to measure the electrodynamic environments of comets Giacobini-Zinner and Halley (Wikipedia). It subsequently entered a solar orbit which sent it inside and outside the orbit of the Earth.

In mid-2014, its current orbit will have ICE pass close to the Earth.
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Top-down view of the orbit of ISEE-3(ICE) relative to the inner solar system. We see the orbit alternates with the spacecraft occasionally closer, then further from the Sun that Earth.
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An oblique view of the orbit of ISEE-3(ICE) relative to the inner planets. Close-up view of the Earth flyby in mid-2014.

Visualization Credits

Tom Bridgman (GST): Lead Animator
Genna Duberstein (USRA): Producer
Laurence Schuler (ADNET): Project Support
Ian Jones (ADNET): Project Support
Karen Fox (ADNET): Writer
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4161

Data Used:
JPL/Horizon Orbital Ephemerides 2008-08-01 - 2014-08-01
JPL DE421 2008-08-01 - 2014-08-01
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

Keywords:
SVS >> HDTV
SVS >> Spacecraft
SVS >> Space Weather
SVS >> Heliophysics
SVS >> Solar System >> Orbits
NASA Science >> Sun
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Sun-earth Interactions >> Ionosphere/Magnetosphere Dynamics >> Solar Wind

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0