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NASA Reaches Voyager 2 With a Last-Ditch ‘Shout’ Across the Void

After an erroneous command sent the spacecraft’s antenna askew, mission specialists hatched a plan to point it back toward Earth.

An aerial view looking down on a large white deep space antenna and a facility in a hilly area with several other large radio antennas.

By Katrina Miller

It took an interstellar “shout” across the solar system. But NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said on Friday that it re-established full communications with Voyager 2, an aging probe exploring the outer edges of the solar system.

“After two weeks of not hearing anything, we’re back to getting unique data from the interstellar medium,” said Linda Spilker, a planetary scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the lead mission scientist for Voyager 2.

The space agency lost contact with Voyager 2 on July 21 when the mission team accidentally sent a command that pushed the spacecraft’s antenna two degrees away from Earth. On Tuesday morning, officials from the Deep Space Network, a worldwide system of radio dishes NASA uses to communicate with various space probes, detected a carrier signal known as a heartbeat from Voyager 2. It was too faint to extract any data, but enough to confirm that the mission was still operating.

Nonetheless, being able to pick up only the heartbeat “was upsetting and worrisome,” said Suzanne Dodd, the project manager for Voyager 2.

The mission team hatched a plan to send a command on Wednesday reorienting Voyager 2’s antenna back to Earth, using a Deep Space Network radio dish in Canberra, Australia.

The chances of success were slim, according to a spokeswoman at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It took 37 hours to know whether the attempt was successful — 18.5 hours for the signal to make it to Voyager 2, and another 18.5 for the data to return.

Ms. Dodd said the waiting period “was pretty nervewracking. You don’t sleep well.”

Scientists, engineers and the flight team were “waiting on pins and needles to hear back from Voyager 2, to see if the command was successful,” Dr. Spilker said. “It was all hands on deck.”

But it worked: On Friday at 12:29 a.m. Eastern time, Voyager 2 began transmitting science data once again. Scientists also confirmed that the probe remained on its original path.

According to Dr. Spilker, mission control in California reacted to the good news with a lot of high fives, tears and sighs of relief.

Voyager 2 launched to space on Aug. 20, 1977, to fly by the solar system’s outer planets and then explore the interstellar space that lies beyond it. The nearly 46-year-old probe is currently more than 12.5 billion miles away from Earth and is collecting data on the distant region of space for scientists to study. Its twin, Voyager 1, was launched weeks after Voyager 2 and became the first to cross the solar system’s boundary.

Had it not established contact, the mission team would have had to wait until Oct. 15, when Voyager 2 is programmed to do an automatic reset of the direction of its antenna.

But it no longer needs to wait, and the mission has resumed data transmissions from beyond the solar system’s heliosphere.

“We did an assessment and the spacecraft looks very healthy, very normal,” Ms. Dodd said. The mission team will continue to run tests to fully understand the status of the spacecraft before resuming regular activity.

Ms. Dodd looks forward to celebrating the probe’s launch anniversary later this month. “Both of these spacecraft are truly remarkable in their longevity,” she said, referring to Voyager 2 and Voyager 1. “They’re like the spacecraft with nine lives.”

Katrina Miller is a science reporting fellow for The Times. She recently earned her Ph.D. in particle physics from the University of Chicago. More about Katrina Miller

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After a 12.3 billion-mile 'shout,' NASA regains full contact with Voyager 2

Emily Olson

Ayana Archie

A NASA image of one of the twin Voyager space probes. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory lost contact with Voyager 2 on July 21 after mistakenly pointing its antenna 2 degrees away from Earth. On Friday, contact was fully restored. NASA/Getty Images hide caption

Talk about a long-distance call.

NASA said it resumed full communications with the Voyager 2 on Friday after almost two weeks of silence from the interstellar spacecraft.

The agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said a series of ground antennas, part of the Deep Space Network, registered a carrier signal from Voyager 2 on Tuesday. However, the signal was too faint.

A Deep Space Network facility in Australia then sent "the equivalent of an interstellar 'shout' " to the Voyager 2 telling it to turn its antenna back toward Earth. The signal was sent more than 12.3 billion miles away and it took 37 hours to get a response from the spacecraft, NASA said.

Scientists received a response at about 12:30 a.m. ET Friday. Voyager 2 is now operating normally, returning science and telemetry data, and "remains on its expected trajectory," NASA said.

NASA said Friday that it lost contact with Voyager 2 on July 21 after "a series of planned commands" inadvertently caused the craft to turn its antenna 2 degrees away from the direction of its home planet.

NASA is keeping Voyager 2 going until at least 2026 by tapping into backup power

What might seem like a slight error had big consequences: NASA previously said it wouldn't be able to communicate with the craft until October, when the satellite would go through one of its routine repositioning steps.

"That is a long time to wait, so we'll try sending up commands several times" before October, program manager Suzanne Dodd told The Associated Press.

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Even if Voyager 2 had failed to reestablish communications until fall, the engineers expected it to stay moving on its planned trajectory on the edge of the solar system.

Voyager 2 entered interstellar space in November 2018 — more than 40 years since it launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla. To this day, Voyager 2 remains one of only two human-made objects to ever operate outside the heliosphere, which NASA defines as "the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields generated by the Sun."

Its primary mission was to study the outer solar system, and already, Voyager 2 has proved its status as a planetary pioneer . Equipped with several imaging instruments, the spacecraft is credited with documenting the discovery of 16 new moons, six new rings and Neptune's "Great Dark Spot."

Voyager 2 Bids Adieu To The Heliosphere, Entering Interstellar Space

Voyager 2 is also carrying some precious cargo, like a message in a bottle, should it find itself as the subject of another world's discovery: a golden record containing a variety of natural sounds, greetings in 55 languages and a 90-minute selection of music.

Last month's command mix-up foreshadows the craft's inevitable end an estimated three years from now.

"Eventually, there will not be enough electricity to power even one instrument," reads a NASA page documenting the spacecraft's travels . "Then, Voyager 2 will silently continue its eternal journey among the stars."

Meanwhile, Voyager 2's sister spacecraft, Voyager 1, is still broadcasting and transmitting data just fine from a slightly farther vantage point of 15 billion miles away.

Correction Aug. 3, 2023

A previous version of this article implied that Voyager 2 flew past Uranus in 2018 when, in fact, the spacecraft concluded its encounter with the planet and started heading toward Neptune in 1986. Voyager 2 entered interstellar space in November 2018.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft after mistake led to weeks of silence

The "Sounds of Earth" golden record is mounted on the Voyager 2 spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in 1977.

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NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft was back chatting it up Friday after flight controllers corrected a mistake that had led to weeks of silence.

Hurtling ever deeper into interstellar space billions of miles away, Voyager 2 stopped communicating two weeks ago. Controllers sent the wrong command to the 46-year-old spacecraft and tilted its antenna away from Earth.

On Wednesday, NASA’s Deep Space Network sent a new command in hopes of repointing the antenna, using the highest powered transmitter at the huge radio dish antenna in Australia. Voyager 2’s antenna needed to be shifted a mere 2 degrees.

It took more than 18 hours for the command to reach Voyager 2 — more than 12 billion miles (19 billion kilometers) away — and another 18 hours to hear back.

PASADENA, CA - AUGUST 02: Suzanne Dodd worked on the Voyager mission in 1986 before moving onto Cassini and later returning to Voyager. Voyager 1, launched in 1977, is the most distant human-created object in space. Photographed on Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022 in Pasadena, CA. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

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The long shot paid off. On Friday, the spacecraft started returning data again, according to officials at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge.

“I just sort of sighed. I melted in the chair,” said project manager Suzanne Dodd .

“Voyager’s back,” project scientist Linda Spilker chimed in.

Voyager 2 has been hurtling through space since its launch in 1977 to explore the outer solar system. Launched two weeks later, its twin, Voyager 1, is now the most distant spacecraft — 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) away — and still in contact.

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The two-week outage was believed to be the longest NASA had gone without hearing from Voyager 2, Dodd said.

As long as their plutonium power holds, the Voyagers may be alive and well for the 50th anniversary of their launch in 2027, according to Dodd. Among the scientific tidbits they’ve beamed back in recent years include details about the interstellar magnetic field and the abundance of cosmic rays.

“We’ve been very clever over the last 10 years to eke out every single little watt,” Dodd said. “Hopefully, one of them will make it to 50. But they are old and certainly events like this one that just happened scare the dickens out of me, as far as making that type of a milestone.”

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‘Interstellar shout’ restores NASA contact with lost Voyager 2 spacecraft

NASA’s Voyager 2 was lost in space because of a mixed signal, but a command dubbed an “interstellar shout” and beamed across billions of miles has restored contact with the spacecraft after two weeks of silence.

Voyager 2, which left Earth nearly 46 years ago, stopped receiving or transmitting communications in July, when controllers accidentally sent a command that shifted its antenna 2 degrees away from Earth.

This week, NASA’s Deep Space Network, which consists of giant radio antennas around the world, picked up a carrier signal from the spacecraft — or what the mission team likened to a “heartbeat” that was too faint to pinpoint the probe but confirmed it was still operating, the U.S. space agency said.

So, engineers tried to send the spacecraft a command to orient itself back at Earth, and they used the highest-powered transmitter at NASA’s huge dish in the Australian capital, Canberra, according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the Voyager missions.

It may have been a long shot, but they heard back. “We shouted 12.3 billion miles into interstellar space, instructing it to turn its antenna back to Earth,” the laboratory said Friday. “And after 37 hours, we found out it worked!”

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NASA said its Deep Space Network facility in Canberra “sent the equivalent of an interstellar ‘shout’” to Voyager 2 — a round-trip communication that required some 18.5 hours each way, for the command to reach the probe and to hear back.

“The spacecraft began returning science and telemetry data, indicating it is operating normally and that it remains on its expected trajectory,” NASA said in its latest update.

“I just sort of sighed. I melted in the chair,” project manager Suzanne Dodd told the Associated Press . The two-week silence was thought to be the longest NASA went without hearing from Voyager 2.

If its efforts had not succeeded, the team would have had to wait for the 46-year-old probe to automatically reset its direction in October.

Voyager 2 , whose launch anniversary is this month, took off in 1977 to sail across the solar system and in 2018 entered interstellar space , the region between the sun’s heliosphere and the astrospheres of other stars. It is the only spacecraft ever to fly by Neptune and Uranus, while its twin, Voyager 1 , now nearly 15 billion miles away, is the most distant spacecraft from Earth.

NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft after weeks of silence from interstellar space

Scientists feared the 46-year-old spacecraft may have been lost for good, by marcia dunn and marcia dunn • published august 4, 2023 • updated on august 4, 2023 at 8:55 pm.

NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft was back chatting it up Friday after flight controllers corrected a mistake that had led to weeks of silence.

It took more than 18 hours for the command to reach Voyager 2 — more than 12 billion miles (19 billion kilometers) away — and another 18 hours to hear back.

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The long shot paid off. On Friday, the spacecraft started returning data again, according to officials at California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“I just sort of sighed. I melted in the chair,” project manager Suzanne Dodd told The Associated Press.

“Voyager's back,” project scientist Linda Spilker chimed in.

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The two-week outage was believed to be the longest NASA had gone without hearing from Voyager 2, Dodd said.

As long as their plutonium power holds, the Voyagers may be alive and well for the 50th anniversary of their launch in 2027, according to Dodd. Among the scientific tidbits they've beamed back in recent years include details about the interstellar magnetic field and the abundance of cosmic rays.

“We've been very clever over the last 10 years to eke out every single little watt,” Dodd said. “Hopefully, one of them will make it to 50. But they are old and certainly events like this one that just happened scare the dickens out of me, as far as making that type of a milestone."

This article tagged under:

NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft after mistake led to weeks of silence

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft was back chatting it up Friday after flight controllers corrected a mistake that had led to weeks of silence.

It took more than 18 hours for the command to reach Voyager 2 — more than 12 billion miles (19 billion kilometers) away — and another 18 hours to hear back.

The long shot paid off. On Friday, the spacecraft started returning data again, according to officials at California’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“I just sort of sighed. I melted in the chair,” project manager Suzanne Dodd told The Associated Press.

“Voyager’s back,” project scientist Linda Spilker chimed in.

The two-week outage was believed to be the longest NASA had gone without hearing from Voyager 2, Dodd said.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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NASA Restores Contact With Voyager 2 Spacecraft After Mistake Led to Weeks of Silence

NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft is back in contact again, after flight controllers corrected a mistake that had led to weeks of silence

FILE - In this Aug. 4, 1977, photo provided by NASA, the "Sounds of Earth" record is mounted on the Voyager 2 spacecraft in the Safe-1 Building at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., prior to encapsulation in the protective shroud. NASA is listening for any peep from Voyager 2 after losing contact with the spacecraft billions of miles away. (AP Photo/NASA, File)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft was back chatting it up Friday after flight controllers corrected a mistake that had led to weeks of silence.

It took more than 18 hours for the command to reach Voyager 2 — more than 12 billion miles (19 billion kilometers) away — and another 18 hours to hear back.

The long shot paid off. On Friday, the spacecraft started returning data again, according to officials at California 's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“I just sort of sighed. I melted in the chair,” project manager Suzanne Dodd told The Associated Press.

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“Voyager's back,” project scientist Linda Spilker chimed in.

The two-week outage was believed to be the longest NASA had gone without hearing from Voyager 2, Dodd said.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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A 'shout' across interstellar space restores contact between Voyager 2 craft and NASA

After weeks of giving Earth the silent treatment , NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft is once again communicating with mission control from billions of miles away.

All it took was for the ground team to send an interstellar "shout" across more than 12.3 billion miles instructing the historic probe launched in the 1970s to explore the far reaches of space to turn its antenna back to Earth.

Easy enough, right? Not so much.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory wasn't even confident the command would be capable of reaching the wayward probe across the expansive solar system. Failure meant that the space agency would have been waiting until mid-October for Voyager 2 to automatically reorient itself after NASA lost contact with the 46-year-old spacecraft last month.

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The array of giant radio network antennas known as the Deep Space Network detected a faint signal last week from Voyager 2, which on July 21 had inadvertently tilted its antenna a mere 2 degrees away from Earth. Though the signal was not strong enough for any data to be extracted, the faint "heartbeat" was enough to give NASA hope that the spacecraft was still operational.

In a Hail Mary effort, a Deep Space Network radio dish in Canberra, Australia sent out a message it hoped would somehow reach the craft and command it to correct its antenna orientation.

It took 18 and-a-half hours for the command to reach Voyager 2, and 37 hours total for mission controllers to know whether it was successful. But after what must have been dozens of tense hours, the team received science and telemetry data from Voyager 2 around 12:30 a.m. on Friday, indicating the craft remains operational and on its expected trajectory.

"NASA has reestablished full communications with Voyager 2," JPL announced , saying that the antenna has realigned with Earth.

Where is Voyager 2?

Voyager 2, which is nearly 46 years into its mission, is roughly 12.4 billion miles from Earth after leaving the heliosphere — the shield that protects the planets from interstellar radiation — five years ago, according to NASA.

The agency provides an interactive diagram tracking Voyager 2's path outside the solar system.

Historic probes launched in the 1970s

Voyager 2 was launched into space in 1977 from Cape Canaveral, Florida with the mission of exploring the outer solar system . Its twin probe, Voyager 1, launched two weeks later and at 15 billion miles away, has the distinction of being the farthest human-made object from Earth .

In 2012, Voyager 1 was the first spacecraft to reach interstellar space , followed in 2018 by Voyager 2.

Voyager 1's communications were not interrupted when a routine command sent its twin probe pointing in the wrong direction last month, disrupting it ability to receive commands or transmit data back to Earth.

Had NASA not reestablished contact, it wouldn't have been until Oct. 15 that Voyager 2 would have automatically repositioned its antenna to ensure it was pointed at its home planet.

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Should they encounter extraterrestrial life, both Voyager 1 and 2 carry the famous " golden record ," functioning both as a time capsule and friendly Earthling greeting. The phonograph record — a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk — contains music, languages and sounds representative of Earth's various cultures and eras.

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected].

NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft after mistake led to weeks of silence

In this Saturday, Aug. 20, 1977 file photo, the Voyager 2 spacecraft, atop a Titan Centaur rocket, is launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo)

NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft was back chatting it up Friday after flight controllers corrected a mistake that had led to weeks of silence.

The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App

On Wednesday, NASA's Deep Space Network sent a new command in hopes of repointing the antenna, using the highest powered transmitter at the huge radio dish antenna in Australia. Voyager 2's antenna needed to be shifted a mere 2 per cent.

It took more than 18 hours for the command to reach Voyager 2 -- more than 12 billion miles (19 billion kilometres) away -- and another 18 hours to hear back.

The long shot paid off. On Friday, the spacecraft started returning data again, according to officials at California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

"I just sort of sighed. I melted in the chair," project manager Suzanne Dodd told The Associated Press.

"Voyager's back," project scientist Linda Spilker chimed in.

Voyager 2 has been hurtling through space since its launch in 1977 to explore the outer solar system. Launched two weeks later, its twin, Voyager 1, is now the most distant spacecraft -- 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometres) away -- and still in contact.

The two-week outage was believed to be the longest NASA had gone without hearing from Voyager 2, Dodd said.

"We've been very clever over the last 10 years to eke out every single little watt," Dodd said. "Hopefully, one of them will make it to 50. But they are old and certainly events like this one that just happened scare the dickens out of me, as far as making that type of a milestone."

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Nasa restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft after mistake led to silence

Spacecraft more than 12 billion miles away returning data once again after its antenna was successfully repointed.

The 46-year-old Voyager 2 is currently more than 12 billion miles from Earth. Photograph: Nasa/AP

Nasa’s Voyager 2 spacecraft has come back online after flight controllers corrected a mistake that had led to weeks of silence.

On Wednesday, Nasa’s Deep Space Network sent a new command in hopes of repointing the antenna, using the highest powered transmitter at the huge radio dish antenna in Australia. Voyager 2’s antenna needed to be shifted a mere 2 per cent.

Graphic: PA

It took more than 18 hours for the command to reach Voyager 2 – more than 12 billion miles away – and another 18 hours to hear back.

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The long shot paid off. On Friday, the spacecraft started returning data again, according to officials at California’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“I just sort of sighed. I melted in the chair,” project manager Suzanne Dodd told the Associated Press.

“Voyager’s back,” project scientist Linda Spilker chimed in.

[ How Ireland is building a strong reputation in Europe’s space programme ]

[ Nasa briefly loses contact with International Space Station, relies on backup systems for first time ]

The two-week outage was believed to be the longest Nasa had gone without hearing from Voyager 2, Ms Dodd said.

As long as their plutonium power holds, the Voyagers may be alive and well for the 50th anniversary of their launch in 2027, said Ms Dodd.

Among the scientific tidbits they have beamed back in recent years include details about the interstellar magnetic field and the abundance of cosmic rays.

“We’ve been very clever over the last 10 years to eke out every single little watt,” Ms Dodd said.

“Hopefully, one of them will make it to 50. But they are old and certainly events like this one that just happened scare the dickens out of me, as far as making that type of a milestone.” – AP

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NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft after mistake led to weeks of silence

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft was back chatting it up Friday after flight controllers corrected a mistake that had led to weeks of silence.

It took more than 18 hours for the command to reach Voyager 2 — more than 12 billion miles (19 billion kilometers) away — and another 18 hours to hear back.

The long shot paid off. On Friday, the spacecraft started returning data again, according to officials at California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“I just sort of sighed. I melted in the chair,” project manager Suzanne Dodd told The Associated Press.

“Voyager's back,” project scientist Linda Spilker chimed in.

The two-week outage was believed to be the longest NASA had gone without hearing from Voyager 2, Dodd said.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft after mistake led to weeks of silence

FILE - In this Aug. 4, 1977, photo provided by NASA, the "Sounds of Earth" record is mounted on the Voyager 2 spacecraft in the Safe-1 Building at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., prior to encapsulation in the protective shroud. NASA is listening for any peep from Voyager 2 after losing contact with the spacecraft billions of miles away. (AP Photo/NASA, File)

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NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft was back chatting it up Friday after flight controllers corrected a mistake that had led to weeks of silence.

It took more than 18 hours for the command to reach Voyager 2 — more than 12 billion miles (19 billion kilometers) away — and another 18 hours to hear back.

The long shot paid off. On Friday, the spacecraft started returning data again, according to officials at California’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“I just sort of sighed. I melted in the chair,” project manager Suzanne Dodd told The Associated Press.

“Voyager’s back,” project scientist Linda Spilker chimed in.

The two-week outage was believed to be the longest NASA had gone without hearing from Voyager 2, Dodd said.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft after mistake led to weeks of silence

Marcia Dunn

Associated Press

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft was back chatting it up Friday after flight controllers corrected a mistake that had led to weeks of silence.

NASA’s Voyager 1 Resumes Sending Engineering Updates to Earth

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is depicted in this artist’s concept traveling through interstellar space, or the space between stars, which it entered in 2012.

After some inventive sleuthing, the mission team can — for the first time in five months — check the health and status of the most distant human-made object in existence.

For the first time since November , NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is returning usable data about the health and status of its onboard engineering systems. The next step is to enable the spacecraft to begin returning science data again. The probe and its twin, Voyager 2, are the only spacecraft to ever fly in interstellar space (the space between stars).

Voyager 1 stopped sending readable science and engineering data back to Earth on Nov. 14, 2023, even though mission controllers could tell the spacecraft was still receiving their commands and otherwise operating normally. In March, the Voyager engineering team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California confirmed that the issue was tied to one of the spacecraft’s three onboard computers, called the flight data subsystem (FDS). The FDS is responsible for packaging the science and engineering data before it’s sent to Earth.

After receiving data about the health and status of Voyager 1 for the first time in five months, members of the Voyager flight team celebrate in a conference room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on April 20.

The team discovered that a single chip responsible for storing a portion of the FDS memory — including some of the FDS computer’s software code — isn’t working. The loss of that code rendered the science and engineering data unusable. Unable to repair the chip, the team decided to place the affected code elsewhere in the FDS memory. But no single location is large enough to hold the section of code in its entirety.

So they devised a plan to divide the affected code into sections and store those sections in different places in the FDS. To make this plan work, they also needed to adjust those code sections to ensure, for example, that they all still function as a whole. Any references to the location of that code in other parts of the FDS memory needed to be updated as well.

The team started by singling out the code responsible for packaging the spacecraft’s engineering data. They sent it to its new location in the FDS memory on April 18. A radio signal takes about 22 ½ hours to reach Voyager 1, which is over 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth, and another 22 ½ hours for a signal to come back to Earth. When the mission flight team heard back from the spacecraft on April 20, they saw that the modification worked: For the first time in five months, they have been able to check the health and status of the spacecraft.

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During the coming weeks, the team will relocate and adjust the other affected portions of the FDS software. These include the portions that will start returning science data.

Voyager 2 continues to operate normally. Launched over 46 years ago , the twin Voyager spacecraft are the longest-running and most distant spacecraft in history. Before the start of their interstellar exploration, both probes flew by Saturn and Jupiter, and Voyager 2 flew by Uranus and Neptune.

Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages JPL for NASA.

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NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft after mistake led to weeks of silence

Saturday 5 August 2023 at 8:25am

NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft has come back into contact with flight controllers after they corrected a mistake that had led to weeks of silence.

It took more than 18 hours for the command to reach Voyager 2 — more than 12 billion miles (19 billion kilometers) away — and another 18 hours to hear back.

The long shot paid off. On Friday, the spacecraft started returning data again, according to officials at California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“I just sort of sighed. I melted in the chair,” project manager Suzanne Dodd told The Associated Press.

“Voyager's back,” project scientist Linda Spilker chimed in.

The two-week outage was believed to be the longest NASA had gone without hearing from Voyager 2, Dodd said.

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NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft finally phones home after 5 months of no contact

On Saturday, April 5, Voyager 1 finally "phoned home" and updated its NASA operating team about its health.

An illustration of a spacecraft with a white disk in space.

NASA's interstellar explorer Voyager 1 is finally communicating with ground control in an understandable way again. On Saturday (April 20), Voyager 1 updated ground control about its health status for the first time in 5 months. While the Voyager 1 spacecraft still isn't sending valid science data back to Earth, it is now returning usable information about the health and operating status of its onboard engineering systems.

Thirty-five years after its launch in 1977, Voyager 1 became the first human-made object to leave the solar system and enter interstellar space . It was followed out of our cosmic quarters by its space-faring sibling, Voyager 2 , six years later in 2018. Voyager 2, thankfully, is still operational and communicating well with Earth.

The two spacecraft remain the only human-made objects exploring space beyond the influence of the sun. However, on Nov. 14, 2023, after 11 years of exploring interstellar space and while sitting a staggering 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth, Voyager 1's binary code — computer language composed of 0s and 1s that it uses to communicate with its flight team at NASA — stopped making sense.

Related: We finally know why NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft stopped communicating — scientists are working on a fix

In March, NASA's Voyager 1 operating team sent a digital "poke" to the spacecraft, prompting its flight data subsystem (FDS) to send a full memory readout back home.

This memory dump revealed to scientists and engineers that the "glitch" is the result of a corrupted code contained on a single chip representing around 3% of the FDS memory. The loss of this code rendered Voyager 1's science and engineering data unusable.

People, many of whom are wearing matching blue shirts, celebrating at a conference table.

The NASA team can't physically repair or replace this chip, of course, but what they can do is remotely place the affected code elsewhere in the FDS memory. Though no single section of the memory is large enough to hold this code entirely, the team can slice it into sections and store these chunks separately. To do this, they will also have to adjust the relevant storage sections to ensure the addition of this corrupted code won't cause those areas to stop operating individually, or working together as a whole. In addition to this, NASA staff will also have to ensure any references to the corrupted code's location are updated.

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— Voyager 2: An iconic spacecraft that's still exploring 45 years on

— NASA's interstellar Voyager probes get software updates beamed from 12 billion miles away

— NASA Voyager 2 spacecraft extends its interstellar science mission for 3 more years

On April 18, 2024, the team began sending the code to its new location in the FDS memory. This was a painstaking process, as a radio signal takes 22.5 hours to traverse the distance between Earth and Voyager 1, and it then takes another 22.5 hours to get a signal back from the craft.

By Saturday (April 20), however, the team confirmed their modification had worked. For the first time in five months, the scientists were able to communicate with Voyager 1 and check its health. Over the next few weeks, the team will work on adjusting the rest of the FDS software and aim to recover the regions of the system that are responsible for packaging and returning vital science data from beyond the limits of the solar system.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Robert Lea is a science journalist in the U.K. whose articles have been published in Physics World, New Scientist, Astronomy Magazine, All About Space, Newsweek and ZME Science. He also writes about science communication for Elsevier and the European Journal of Physics. Rob holds a bachelor of science degree in physics and astronomy from the U.K.’s Open University. Follow him on Twitter @sciencef1rst.

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Robb62 'V'ger must contact the creator. Reply
Holy HannaH! Couldn't help but think that "repair" sounded extremely similar to the mechanics of DNA and the evolution of life. Reply
Torbjorn Larsson *Applause* indeed, thanks to the Voyager teams for the hard work! Reply
SpaceSpinner I notice that the article says that it has been in space for 35 years. Either I have gone back in time 10 years, or their AI is off by 10 years. V-*ger has been captured! Reply

Admin said: On Saturday, April 5, Voyager 1 finally "phoned home" and updated its NASA operating team about its health. The interstellar explorer is back in touch after five months of sending back nonsense data. NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft finally phones home after 5 months of no contact : Read more

evw said: I'm incredibly grateful for the persistence and dedication of the Voyagers' teams and for the amazing accomplishments that have kept these two spacecrafts operational so many years beyond their expected lifetimes. V-1 was launched when I was 25 years young; I was nearly delirious with joy. Exploring the physical universe captivated my attention while I was in elementary school and has kept me mesmerized since. I'm very emotional writing this note, thinking about what amounts to a miracle of technology and longevity in my eyes. BRAVO!!! THANK YOU EVERYONE PAST & PRESENT!!!

EBairead I presume it's Fortran. Well done all. Reply

SpaceSpinner said: I notice that the article says that it has been in space for 35 years. Either I have gone back in time 10 years, or their AI is off by 10 years. V-*ger has been captured!

EBairead said: I presume it's Fortran. Well done all.

View All 13 Comments

Inside NASA's 5-month fight to save the Voyager 1 mission in interstellar space

Artist's concept depicts NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft entering interstellar space.

After working for five months to re-establish communication with the farthest-flung human-made object in existence, NASA announced this week that the Voyager 1 probe had finally phoned home.

For the engineers and scientists who work on NASA’s longest-operating mission in space, it was a moment of joy and intense relief.

“That Saturday morning, we all came in, we’re sitting around boxes of doughnuts and waiting for the data to come back from Voyager,” said Linda Spilker, the project scientist for the Voyager 1 mission at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “We knew exactly what time it was going to happen, and it got really quiet and everybody just sat there and they’re looking at the screen.”

When at long last the spacecraft returned the agency’s call, Spilker said the room erupted in celebration.

“There were cheers, people raising their hands,” she said. “And a sense of relief, too — that OK, after all this hard work and going from barely being able to have a signal coming from Voyager to being in communication again, that was a tremendous relief and a great feeling.”

Members of the Voyager flight team celebrate in a conference room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on April 20.

The problem with Voyager 1 was first detected in November . At the time, NASA said it was still in contact with the spacecraft and could see that it was receiving signals from Earth. But what was being relayed back to mission controllers — including science data and information about the health of the probe and its various systems — was garbled and unreadable.

That kicked off a monthslong push to identify what had gone wrong and try to save the Voyager 1 mission.

Spilker said she and her colleagues stayed hopeful and optimistic, but the team faced enormous challenges. For one, engineers were trying to troubleshoot a spacecraft traveling in interstellar space , more than 15 billion miles away — the ultimate long-distance call.

“With Voyager 1, it takes 22 1/2 hours to get the signal up and 22 1/2 hours to get the signal back, so we’d get the commands ready, send them up, and then like two days later, you’d get the answer if it had worked or not,” Spilker said.

A Titan/Centaur-6 launch vehicle carries NASA's Voyager 1 at the Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 5, 1977.

The team eventually determined that the issue stemmed from one of the spacecraft’s three onboard computers. Spilker said a hardware failure, perhaps as a result of age or because it was hit by radiation, likely messed up a small section of code in the memory of the computer. The glitch meant Voyager 1 was unable to send coherent updates about its health and science observations.

NASA engineers determined that they would not be able to repair the chip where the mangled software is stored. And the bad code was also too large for Voyager 1's computer to store both it and any newly uploaded instructions. Because the technology aboard Voyager 1 dates back to the 1960s and 1970s, the computer’s memory pales in comparison to any modern smartphone. Spilker said it’s roughly equivalent to the amount of memory in an electronic car key.

The team found a workaround, however: They could divide up the code into smaller parts and store them in different areas of the computer’s memory. Then, they could reprogram the section that needed fixing while ensuring that the entire system still worked cohesively.

That was a feat, because the longevity of the Voyager mission means there are no working test beds or simulators here on Earth to test the new bits of code before they are sent to the spacecraft.

“There were three different people looking through line by line of the patch of the code we were going to send up, looking for anything that they had missed,” Spilker said. “And so it was sort of an eyes-only check of the software that we sent up.”

The hard work paid off.

NASA reported the happy development Monday, writing in a post on X : “Sounding a little more like yourself, #Voyager1.” The spacecraft’s own social media account responded , saying, “Hi, it’s me.”

So far, the team has determined that Voyager 1 is healthy and operating normally. Spilker said the probe’s scientific instruments are on and appear to be working, but it will take some time for Voyager 1 to resume sending back science data.

Voyager 1 and its twin, the Voyager 2 probe, each launched in 1977 on missions to study the outer solar system. As it sped through the cosmos, Voyager 1 flew by Jupiter and Saturn, studying the planets’ moons up close and snapping images along the way.

Voyager 2, which is 12.6 billion miles away, had close encounters with Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune and continues to operate as normal.

In 2012, Voyager 1 ventured beyond the solar system , becoming the first human-made object to enter interstellar space, or the space between stars. Voyager 2 followed suit in 2018.

Spilker, who first began working on the Voyager missions when she graduated college in 1977, said the missions could last into the 2030s. Eventually, though, the probes will run out of power or their components will simply be too old to continue operating.

Spilker said it will be tough to finally close out the missions someday, but Voyager 1 and 2 will live on as “our silent ambassadors.”

Both probes carry time capsules with them — messages on gold-plated copper disks that are collectively known as The Golden Record . The disks contain images and sounds that represent life on Earth and humanity’s culture, including snippets of music, animal sounds, laughter and recorded greetings in different languages. The idea is for the probes to carry the messages until they are possibly found by spacefarers in the distant future.

“Maybe in 40,000 years or so, they will be getting relatively close to another star,” Spilker said, “and they could be found at that point.”

Denise Chow is a reporter for NBC News Science focused on general science and climate change.

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NASA hears from Voyager 1, the most distant spacecraft from Earth, after months of quiet

This illustration provided by NASA depicts Voyager 1. The most distant spacecraft from Earth stopped sending back understandable data in November 2023. Flight controllers traced the blank communication to a bad computer chip and rearranged the spacecraft’s coding to work around the trouble. In mid-April 2024, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory declared success after receiving good engineering updates. The team is still working to restore transmission of the science data. (NASA via AP)

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA has finally heard back from Voyager 1 again in a way that makes sense.

The most distant spacecraft from Earth stopped sending back understandable data last November. Flight controllers traced the blank communication to a bad computer chip and rearranged the spacecraft’s coding to work around the trouble.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California declared success after receiving good engineering updates late last week. The team is still working to restore transmission of the science data.

It takes 22 1/2 hours to send a signal to Voyager 1, more than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) away in interstellar space. The signal travel time is double that for a round trip.

Contact was never lost, rather it was like making a phone call where you can’t hear the person on the other end, a JPL spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Launched in 1977 to study Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager 1 has been exploring interstellar space — the space between star systems — since 2012. Its twin, Voyager 2, is 12.6 billion miles (20 billion kilometers) away and still working fine.

This photo provided by NASA shows the Perseverance Mars rover collecting a sample from a rock called "Bunsen Peak" using a coring bit on the end of its robotic arm on March 11, 2024. NASA has put the effort to bring the samples to Earth on hold until there is a faster, cheaper way. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU via AP)

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Voyager 1 talking to Earth again after NASA engineers 24 billion kilometres away devise software fix

NASA's Voyager 1 probe — the most distant man-made object in the universe — is returning usable information to ground control following months of spouting gibberish, the US space agency says.

The spaceship stopped sending readable data back to Earth on November 14, 2023, even though controllers could tell it was still receiving their commands.

In March, teams working at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory discovered that a single malfunctioning chip was to blame.

They then had to devise a clever coding fix that worked within the tight memory constraints of its 46-year-old computer system.

"There was a section of the computer memory no longer working," project leader Dr Linda Spilker told the ABC.

"So we had to reprogram what was in that memory, move it to a different location, link everything back together and send everything up in a patch.

"And then on Saturday morning, we watched as Voyager 1 sent its first commands back and we knew we were back in communication once again."

Dr Spilker said they were receiving engineering data, so they knew the health and safety of the spacecraft.

"The next step is going to be to develop a patch so we can send back the science data," she said.

"That will really be exciting, to once again learn about interstellar space and what has been going on there that we've missed since November."

Dr Spilker said Voyager sent back data in real time, so the team had no facility to retrieve data covering the time since transmission was lost.

Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 was mankind's first spacecraft to enter the interstellar medium , in 2012, and is currently more than 24 billion kilometres from Earth.

Messages sent from Earth take about 22.5 hours to reach the spacecraft.

Its twin, Voyager 2, also left the solar system in 2018 as it was tracked by Australia's Parkes radio telescope.

Australia was also vital to a 2023 search for Voyager 2 after signals were lost, with Canberra's Deep Space Communication Complex monitoring for signals and then sending a successful command to shift the spacecraft's antenna 2 degrees .

Both Voyager spacecraft carry " Golden Records ": 12-inch, gold-plated copper disks intended to convey the story of our world to extraterrestrials.

These include a map of our solar system, a piece of uranium that serves as a radioactive clock allowing recipients to date the spaceship's launch, and symbolic instructions that convey how to play the record.

The contents of the record, selected for NASA by a committee chaired by legendary astronomer Carl Sagan, include encoded images of life on Earth, as well as music and sounds that can be played using an included stylus.

Their power banks were expected to be depleted sometime after 2025, but Dr Spilker said several systems had been turned off, so they were hopeful the two spacecraft would function into the 2030s.

They will then continue to wander the Milky Way, potentially for eternity, in silence.

An image depicting two sides of a golden record. On one side it says The Sounds of Earth. On the other side are various diagrams

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How songs from tiny villages in the Pacific are now floating in outer space

Composite of The Sounds of Earth discs sent into space on the Voyager space probe.

Voyager 1 spacecraft enters interstellar space

Artist's impression of Voyager 1 passing through space.

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NASA hears from Voyager 1, the most distant spacecraft from Earth, after months of quiet

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA has finally heard back from Voyager 1 again in a way that makes sense.

It takes 22 1/2 hours to send a signal to Voyager 1, more than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) away in interstellar space. The signal travel time is double that for a round trip.

Contact was never lost, rather it was like making a phone call where you can’t hear the person on the other end, a JPL spokeswoman said Tuesday.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft after mistake led to
NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 after weeks of silence
NASA restores contact with Voyager 2
NASA restores contact with NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft
NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft after mistake led to
NASA Successfully Restores Communication with Voyager 2 Following

COMMENTS

NASA Restores Voyager 2 Contact With a Last-Ditch 'Shout' Into Space
Aug. 4, 2023. It took an interstellar "shout" across the solar system. But NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said on Friday that it re-established full communications with Voyager 2, an aging ...
NASA says it has resumed full contact with its Voyager 2 spacecraft
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory lost contact with Voyager 2 on July 21 after mistakenly pointing its antenna 2 degrees away from Earth. On Friday, contact was fully restored. Talk about a long ...
NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft
NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft after mistake led to weeks of silence. Voyager 2 has been hurtling through space since its launch in 1977 to explore the outer solar system. The ...
NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft after mistake led to
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft was back chatting it up Friday after flight controllers corrected a mistake that had led to weeks of silence. Hurtling ever deeper into interstellar space billions of miles away, Voyager 2 stopped communicating two weeks ago. Controllers sent the wrong command to the 46-year-old ...
NASA's 'shout' restores communication with Voyager 2
NASA sent a radio signal to Voyager 2, located billions of miles away in interstellar space, and restored communications with the spacecraft after an errant command caused a blackout.
NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft after mistake led to
Voyager 2 stopped communicating two weeks ago, after the wrong command tilted its antenna away from earth. Contact was re-established with a command sent using the highest powered transmitter of a ...
NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 after weeks of silence
Aug. 4, 2023 6:22 PM PT. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. —. NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft was back chatting it up Friday after flight controllers corrected a mistake that had led to weeks of silence ...
NASA restores contact with lost Voyager 2 space probe after two weeks
NASA's Voyager 2 was lost in space because of a mixed signal, but a command dubbed an "interstellar shout" and beamed across billions of miles has restored contact with the spacecraft after ...
NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 after correcting mistake
NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft was back chatting it up Friday after flight controllers corrected a mistake that had led to weeks of silence. Hurtling ever deeper into interstellar space billions of ...
NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft after mistake led to
Voyager 2's antenna needed to be shifted a mere 2 degrees. It took more than 18 hours for the command to reach Voyager 2 — more than 12 billion miles (19 billion kilometers) away — and ...
NASA Restores Contact With Voyager 2 Spacecraft After Mistake Led to
NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft is back in contact again, after flight controllers corrected a mistake that had led to weeks of silence. FILE - In this Aug. 4, 1977, photo provided by NASA, the ...
Voyager 2 contact reestablished after NASA sends 'shout. across space
1:24. After weeks of giving Earth the silent treatment, NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft is once again communicating with mission control from billions of miles away. All it took was for the ground ...
NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft
Share. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -. NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft was back chatting it up Friday after flight controllers corrected a mistake that had led to weeks of silence. Hurtling ever deeper into ...
Nasa restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft after mistake led to
Sat Aug 5 2023 - 07:45. Nasa's Voyager 2 spacecraft has come back online after flight controllers corrected a mistake that had led to weeks of silence. Hurtling ever deeper into interstellar ...
NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft after mistake led to
NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft was back chatting it up Friday after flight controllers corrected a mistake that had led to weeks of silence. Hurtling ever deeper into interstellar space billions of miles away, Voyager 2 stopped communicating two weeks ago. Controllers sent the wrong command to the 46-year-old spacecraft and tilted its antenna away from Earth.
Voyager 1 regains communications with NASA after inventive fix
In August 2023, the mission team used a long-shot "shout" technique to restore communications with Voyager 2 after a command inadvertently oriented the spacecraft's antenna in the wrong ...
NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft after mistake led to
FILE - In this Aug. 4, 1977, photo provided by NASA, the "Sounds of Earth" record is mounted on the Voyager 2 spacecraft in the Safe-1 Building at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., prior to ...
Voyager 2: NASA restores contact with spacecraft
Voyager 2: NASA restores contact with spacecraft 08/05/2023 August 5, 2023. NASA scientists are breathing a sigh of relief as data from the Voyager 2 spacecraft is again being received. The long ...
NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft after ...
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft was back chatting it up Friday after flight controllers corrected a mistake that had led to weeks of silence. Hurtling ever deeper into interstellar space billions of miles away, Voyager 2 stopped communicating two weeks ago. Controllers sent the wrong command to the 46-year-old spacecraft and […]
NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft after mistake led to
In this Aug. 4, 1977, photo provided by NASA, the "Sounds of Earth" record is mounted on the Voyager 2 spacecraft in the Safe-1 Building at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., prior to ...
NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft after mistake led to
On Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023, NASA's Deep Space Network sent a command to correct a problem with its antenna. It took more than 18 hours for the signal to reach Voyager 2 _ more than 12 billion ...
NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft after ...
FILE - In this Aug. 4, 1977, photo provided by NASA, the "Sounds of Earth" record is mounted on the Voyager 2 spacecraft in the Safe-1 Building at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
NASA's Voyager 1 Resumes Sending Engineering Updates to Earth
For the first time since November, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft is returning usable data about the health and status of its onboard engineering systems.The next step is to enable the spacecraft to begin returning science data again. The probe and its twin, Voyager 2, are the only spacecraft to ever fly in interstellar space (the space between stars).
NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft after mistake ...
FILE - In this Aug. 4, 1977, photo provided by NASA, the "Sounds of Earth" record is mounted on the Voyager 2 spacecraft in the Safe-1 Building at the Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft
NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft has come back into contact with flight controllers after they corrected a mistake that had led to weeks of silence. Hurtling ever deeper into interstellar space ...
NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft finally phones home after 5 months of no
On Saturday, April 5, Voyager 1 finally "phoned home" and updated its NASA operating team about its health. The interstellar explorer is back in touch after five months of sending back nonsense data.
Inside NASA's monthslong effort to rescue the Voyager 1 mission
The Voyager 1 probe is the most distant human-made object in existence. After a major effort to restore communication with it, NASA announced success this week.
NASA hears from Voyager 1, its most distant spacecraft, after months of
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California declared success after receiving good engineering updates late last week. The team is still working to restore transmission of the science data. It takes 22 1/2 hours to send a signal to Voyager 1, more than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) away in interstellar space.
Voyager 1 talking to Earth again after NASA engineers 24 billion
NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft after weeks of silence. Voyager 2 was exploring interstellar space 19 billion kilometres away from Earth when an erroneous command caused it to tilt ...
NASA hears from Voyager 1, the most distant spacecraft from Earth ...
The team is still working to restore transmission of the science data. It takes 22 1/2 hours to send a signal to Voyager 1, more than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) away in interstellar ...

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Vets Affairs 'March holidays' post: 'In trying to be apolitical we became political'

Doctors concerned about potential spread of bird flu in Canada

Halle Berry shouts from the Capitol, 'I'm in menopause' as she seeks to end stigma and win funding

Doctors dealing with at least 160 Canadians suffering eye damage possibly linked to looking at the eclipse

Orangutan observed treating wound using medicinal plant in world first

Facial reconstruction reveals what a 40-something Neanderthal woman may have looked like

B.C. man awarded $5,000 in damages in first-of-its-kind intimate image case

Entertainment

Britney Spears and Sam Asghari are officially divorced and single

The first wrongful-death trial in Travis Scott concert deaths has been delayed

Groundbreaking American guitarist dies age 86

'SIM swap' that enabled theft of $63K in bitcoin at centre of B.C. court case