Well, they did not plan on ending the mission now. They had some equipment heater problems. They did a work-around pumping onboard fuel (which is kept warm by another heater) past the non-functioning parts. However, this caused a small loss of fuel each cycle. Now they've run out.

The would have liked to have the spacecraft in a closer orbit to the Sun. To get it into a vertical plane with respect to the solar system, they launched to Jupiter, swept under the south pole of Jupiter and the gravity put Ulysses into the desired plane. But every orbit went out to Jupiter and back. They did get lots of good science with regard to solar wind etc., from a new perspective.

I still think they should have had a SolarMax 90 and CCD camera on board and I give the Director of Operations grief about it all the time. He's my brother-in-law.

Clear skies,