After completing its original mission, ISEE-3 was re-tasked to study the interaction between the solar wind and a cometary atmosphere. On 10 June 1982, the spacecraft performed a maneuver which removed it from its halo orbit around the point and placed it in a transfer orbit. This involved a series of passages between Earth and the Sun-Earth Lagrange point, through the Earth's magnetotail. Fifteen propulsive maneuvers and five lunar gravity assists resulted in the spacecraft being ejected from the Earth-Moon system and into a heliocentric orbit. Its last and closest pass over the Moon, on December 22, 1983, was only above the lunar surface; following this pass, the spacecraft was re-designated as the International Cometary Explorer (ICE).
