International Sun—Earth Explorer-C

views updated

International SunEarth Explorer-C (ISEE-3, ISEE-C, Explorer 59) One of the three spacecraft comprising a NASA mission, launched in 1978, to study the relationship between Earth and the Sun, the solar wind, and cosmic rays. In 1982, ISEE-3 was removed from its orbit about one of the Lagrangian libration points, eventually into a heliocentric orbit ahead of Earth that would intersect the comet Giacobini-Zinner, at which point the spacecraft was renamed International Cometary Explorer (ICE). It traversed the plasma tail of the comet in September 1985.

More From encyclopedia.com

About this article

International Sun—Earth Explorer-C

Updated About encyclopedia.com content Print Article

You Might Also Like

    NEARBY TERMS

    International Sun—Earth Explorer-C