Out of Fuel

Back in June, I posted about the I-SEE3 Spacecraft which had recently drawn quite close to Earth. I felt somehow that this 1970's era spacecraft symbolized the church. The spacecraft had been sent a signal to shutdown, but never did. Like the church, it remained irrelevant for many years but still fully functioning.

I thought I would post an update on the I-SEE 3 Mission as it certainly didn't turn out as I expected. Shortly after my post, the team in control of the spacecraft attempted a series of 11 maneuvers to put it into a new orbit between the Earth and the Sun.Only a couple of maneuvers were successful before the thrusters started to sputter.

For a week I sat on the edge of the seat, hoping for some good news, checking their blog several times a day. There could have been several things that had gone wrong, anything from a clog in the fuel lines to a busted valve.

It hadn't crossed my mind that I-SEE3 would be out of fuel. Although I'm only an outside observer with no experience in interplanetary science, I thought that I-SEE3 was a sure thing.

On July 24th, the Reboot Project started commanding the spacecraft to shutdown any systems that didn't do science. While the original intended mission isn't a possibility any longer, the scientific instruments on board are still functioning and relaying information back about solar activity. For the first time in 30+ years, I-SEE3 is again doing science and reporting it back to earth for any all all to hear. During our most recent solar flare, people were listening as I-SEE3 reported what was going on.

My initial reaction was that ISEE-3 was dead, unusable, spent. And to be sure, the fuel and propulsion system is. It's still hard to remind myself that this is not the case for the whole spacecraft.

In our work exploring our to revitalize the church, I think we have came to similar conclusions about the Episcopal Church. While parts of us are still vital and relevant, other parts are well out of fuel.

We're at a crossroads: do we attempt to revitalize ourselves to go on more missions or should we die and let die in the hope of Resurrection?


I hope you will join us at Diocesan Convention November 7-8 to hear what we think about this question and more.


Robert