A vintage NASA spacecraft from 1970s, the International Sun-Earth Explorer 3 (ISEE-3)– a spaceship without a moor after NASA scuttled the project and abandoned satellite– drifted through space for almost 20 years before a team of citizen space hackers re-discovered it, crowdfunded the project, acquired the project rights form NASA and rebuilt communications support equipment from scratch.

10 years ago this project “would have been impossible” said Dennis Wingo, CEO of Skycorp and co-lead of the project,in an interview with the IEEE Spectrum.

The team tried to get the spacecraft to re-enter orbit with Earth so it could resume its old halo orbit in between the Earth and the Sun, gathering data on solar winds interacting with the magnetosphere. Unfortunately, the thrusters could not be fully activated to propel ISEE-3 back into orbit, most likely due to a loss of nitrogen pressurization.

“It obviously leaked away, but the mechanism for how that happened is undetermined at this time,” Wingo, to the IEEE Spectrum.

However, at least four of the satellite’s instruments are still operational, so the team has redesigned the scope of ISEE-3’s mission. On the spacecraft’s website, curious citizens and amateur astrophysicists can track the solar array current, solar array temperature, magnometer, and proton counts of the satellite.

Scientist envision multiple experiments can be conducted with the spacecraft. They hope to utilize the magnetometer to collect data on the edge of Earth’s magnetosphere and its interactions with solar wind, which could enlighten scientists on methods to help stymie future solar storms. The team also would like to conduct an experiment to measure the flux of protons coming from the sun.

In order to access proper laboratory space, the team submitted a proposal to the Aricebo Observatory, home of the world’s largest single aperature-telescope. After an independent review board reviewed and approved the proposal, ISEE-3 scientists have access to utilize the telescope to communicate to and collect data from the satellite.

The timeframe to communicate with the satellite is limited, as the team predicts that telescope will lose contact with the spacecraft in about a year. Afterwards, the ISEE-3 is banished to another 15 years of deep-space solitude before encountering a curious Earth once again.