All systems are go for a first-of-its-kind effort to contact and revive an unmanned space probe launched in the late 1970s to study the flow of solar wind and then abandoned by researchers two decades later.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has agreed to collaborate with a group of citizen scientists -- working through a crowdfunded project -- who have a plan to revive the space agency's International Sun-Earth Explorer-3 (ISEE-3) spacecraft, which is more than 35 years old.

The Non-Reimbursable Space Act Agreement signed between NASA and Skycorp, Inc., of Los Gatos, California, allows the private company to try to contact, command and control, NASA's International Sun-Earth Explorer-3 (ISEE-3) spacecraft as part of the company's ISEE-3 Reboot Project, which ultimately seeks to resume the probe's original mission.

Launched in 1978 to study the constant flow of solar wind streaming from the sun to Earth, ISEE-3 completed its prime mission in 1981, after which, since it had still had some remaining fuel and functioning instruments, it was redubbed the International Comet Explorer and was redirected to observe two comets.

After the successful completion of its secondary mission, the craft was left orbiting the sun and, in 1997, was ordered to shut down, NASA records show.

Then, two years later, the space agency reportedly trashed all of the hardware able to communicate with ISEE-3.

But, in 2008 the international Deep Space Network made contact with the probe and discovered it was still operational. That sparked interest from the space exploration community in trying to resurrect what for years was assumed a long-lost mission.

But, NASA decided against funding such a recovery.

So, enter Skycorp, which has raised an initial $125,000 for the project on crowdfunding platform RocketHub and is now working to raise $25,000 more.

And, though the company is still reaching for its end goal of $150,000, its research team gained permission recently to use the Deep Space Network by attaching a radio device to Puerto Rico's Arecibo telescope, through which it was able to connect with ISEE-3 early this week, according to a report by Motherboard.

Via a posting on the Skycorp Website: "NASA has told us officially that there is no funding available to support an ISEE-3 effort - nor is this work a formal priority for the agency right now. But NASA does feel that the data that ISEE-3 could generate would have real value and that a crowd funded effort such as ours has real value as an education and public outreach activity."

John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said in a news release that the "intrepid ISEE-3 spacecraft was sent away from its primary mission to study the physics of the solar wind extending its mission of discovery to study two comets."

This summer, as the robot probe makes its closest approach to Earth in more than 30 years, "we have a chance to engage a new generation of citizen scientists through this creative effort to recapture the ISEE-3 spacecraft as it zips by," he added.

Spelling out technical, safety, legal and proprietary issues that need to be resolved before any attempt in made to even contact ISEE-3, the agreement between NASA and Skycorp marks the first time the space agency has refocused its attention on a spacecraft no longer in use and which was never expected to be used again.