Iminplaya sends in the good news that reports of the death of the Ulysses mission are premature. (We've discussed the impending shutdown of the 17-year-old mission a couple of times this year.) Ulysses is a joint NASA / ESA mission to study the sun from an orbit inclined almost 90 degrees from the ecliptic. From the Planetary Society blog post: "Ulysses is not dead yet. ESA issued a comment in February saying that, as Ulysses' radioisotope thermoelectric generators were running out of power, the spacecraft would likely die some time this year. The actual death blow to the spacecraft was likely to be the freezing of hydrazine fuel in a cold spot in a fuel line. Mission controllers found ingenious ways to prevent the freezing, but the mixture was not a long-term one, and ESA had a ceremonial send-off and wrap-up of the mission in mid-June, ballyhoo* that the spacecraft would be shut down on July 1. However, it now appears that announcement was premature. ESA issued a account on July 3 titled 'Ulysses hanging on valiantly.' And on Wednesday, the [Ulysses mission supervision study manager indicated] that Ulysses' voyage could literally renew for some time."

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