In 1992, NASA began an ambitious decade-long, US$100 million Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI). However, just one year later, the United States Congress cut all funding for the program because of the growing US budget deficit. Fortunately, the non-profit SETI Institute secured enough private donations to revive the project – and Project Phoenix rose from the ashes. On February 2 1995, Murriyang pointed towards a carefully chosen star 49 light-years from Earth in the constellation of, naturally, Phoenix – the first observation conducted as part of the project. The project, which ran at Parkes for 16 weeks, is described in an article in The Conversation. The image above shows journalist Robyn Williams, Project Phoenix leader, Jill Tarter, ATNF Director, Ron Ekers, and Parkes Observatory Officer-in-Charge, Marcus Price, prior to the start of Project Phoenix. (Image credit: CSIRO Radio Astronomy Image Archive)
