A team of civilians has taken control of a NASA satellite in a makeshift control center--an abandoned McDonald's in Mountain View, California.

This independent crew led by former NASA employee Keith Cowing has taken command of the formerly derelict satellite ISEE-3 or the International Sun/Earth Explorer-3 satellite, which has become the world's first "open source satellite."

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The team at their new control base they call "McMoons" use unique equipment such as an old flat screen TV and even old radio parts from eBay to control the satellite.

To date, no external organization has ever taken control of a NASA satellite except for Cowing and his team. NASA has agreed to help them.

The satellite used to shuttle from Earth to the Moon and even flew through a tail of a comet.

ISEE-3 is a vintage NASA satellite that was used to measure space weather such as the solar wind and radiation. It stopped operating decades ago

The satellite's battery has been dead for 20 years but its solar panels can restore up to 98 percent of the satellite's full capabilities.

The team raised a staggering US$160,000 from their crowdfunding campaign to finance their mission. They had expected to raise only US$120,000.

The team set up their control center in a neighborhood near the Ames Research Center in Mountain View. It made contact with the satellite that they placed into a new orbit around the sun.

The team is currently collecting solar weather data and plan to share the information with the public.

Cowing also said anybody who is interested and who has a computer is allowed to use the data from the open-source satellite.

ISEE-3 was launched August 12, 1978 into a heliocentric orbit. ISEE-3 was the first spacecraft to be placed in a halo orbit at the L1 Earth-Sun Lagrangian point.

It became the first spacecraft to visit a comet, passing through the tail of Comet Giacobini-Zinner within about 7,800 km of the nucleus.The satellite was later renamed the International Cometary Explorer (ICE).  

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