posted 09-09-2016 07:39 AM               

Space Cover 383: ISEE-C

This installment of Space Cover of the Week will delve into the ISEE-C spacecraft and mission.

The International Sun-Earth Explorer-3 (Explorer-59) spacecraft was launched on August 12, 1978 aboard Delta launch vehicle #144. The spacecraft was designed to investigate Earth's magnetosphere, solar winds, cosmic rays and solar flares.

ISEE-3 was the first spacecraft to be placed at the L1 earth-sun Langrangian point on November 20, 1978. On December 22, 1983 after 5 years at the L1 libration point, a lunar gravity assist maneuver was used to send the ISEE-3 spacecraft toward an encounter with the Comet Giacobini-Zinner in 1985. Renamed the International Cometary Explorer (ICE), the spacecraft encountered the comet on September 11, 1985 at a distance of 4,800 miles.

The bottom two covers were autographed by Flight Director, Robert Farquhar who developed the trajectories for ISEE-3.

The Goddard Space Flight Center stamp club issued the covers shown.