June 29, 2009-- Ulysses was launched in 1990 aboard Space Shuttle Discovery following the so called "hydrogen Summer" which was a fuel leak that grounded all of NASA's Shuttles. Discovery was fixed first, so it went.

Ulysses' job was to circle the Sun between its North and South poles to study solar flares and the solar wind. What's the big deal to us on Earth? Well, NASA likes to point to the so called  "Carrington effect" which hit in 1859. It was a solar flare that was so powerful that it overloaded electric telegraph lines and caused telegraph offices to catch fire. The Agency says the flare also caused an "aurora borealis" or "Northern Lights" effect so bright that people at the time could read newspapers by it at night.

Astronomers say another period of heightened solar activity could be coming in a year or two. 

We'll see.