message voyager 2

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

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

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.

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.

These are the 4 astronauts who'll take a trip around the moon next year

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

After months of silence, Voyager 2 sends a gleeful message back to Earth

11.5 billion miles away from Earth, the intrepid spacecraft finally got a call from NASA after months of radio silence.

After months of the silent treatment , NASA has finally reconnected with one of its longest running missions.

The Voyager 2 spacecraft has been roaming the cosmos for more than 40 years, all the while staying in touch with a diligent team of engineers in ground control. But in March of this year, NASA hung up the line.

The space agency left the spacecraft to spend a lonely few months in space in order to upgrade their communication system. Flying some 11.5 billion miles away from Earth, Voyager 2 was left to its own devices in mid-March.

But on October 29, NASA briefly reconnected. And, thankfully, Voyager 2 gleefully answered the call.

Voyager 2 is a vital scientific mission and one of the furthest manmade objects from Earth — so far it has left the Solar System entirely. To communicate with the spacecraft, NASA relies on a system called the Deep Space Network (DSN) antennas .

The system came to be when NASA launched its first ever satellite, Explorer 1, in 1958. The DSN is used to communicate with an average of 30 spacecraft every day. It runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and is spread out across three sites in the United States, Australia, and Spain.

The DSN is reliable. But it is also more than 70 years old.

Engineers got to work, upgrading the radio antenna Deep Space Station 43 in Canberra, Australia.

As the space agency gears up for a slew of new missions to the Moon and Mars , all launching in the next few years, the DSN is due for a much needed upgrade.

NASA started this crucial work with an antenna dubbed Dss43. It is 230-feet-wide, about the size of a 20-story building, and is located in Canberra, Australia.

Dss43 has been operational for 48 years — and some of its parts, including the transmitter used to communicate with Voyager 2, had never been upgraded.

But to safeguard the antenna's next four decades of service (hopefully), NASA has upgraded Dss43's heating and cooling equipment, power supply equipment, and other electronics.

Friday's brief call to Voyager 2 was the first test of the new equipment.

"What makes this task unique is that we're doing work at all levels of the antenna, from the pedestal at ground level all the way up to the feedcones at the center of the dish that extend above the rim," Brad Arnold, the DSN project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Southern California, said in a statement . "This test communication with Voyager 2 definitely tells us that things are on track with the work we're doing."

In the test, NASA's mission operators sent a series of commands to Voyager 2 for the first time since the radio antenna went offline in mid-March, and the spacecraft confirmed that it had received the signal and went on to execute the commands.

Unfortunately for the lonely craft, NASA is going to hang up the line again. Dss43 will not be fully back online until February, 2021. Voyager 2 will have to face a few more months alone. That's worrying for the mission's engineers on the ground, too.

"Having the antenna down for one year is not an ideal situation for Voyager or for many other NASA missions," Philip Baldwin, operations manager for NASA's Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Program, said in statement. "The agency made the decision to conduct these upgrades to ensure that the antenna can continue to be used for current and future missions. For an antenna that is almost 50 years old, it's better to be proactive than reactive with critical maintenance."

In January 2020, Voyager 2 suffered a slight glitch , when its software shut down one of its science instruments unexpectedly. NASA’s ground team of engineers worked round the clock to get the spacecraft up and running to its normal operations once again by sending commands up to the craft. Because of its distance, each command took about 17 hours to reach Voyager 2. With no communication line, any fault with the craft that occurs during the downtime would be missed.

Voyager 2 is on a joint mission with another craft, Voyager 1, to provide scientists with a unique view of our own Solar System, looking at it from the outside in.

Both spacecraft began their journey in 1977, and the speedier twin Voyager 1 made the jump into interstellar space in 2011, before it was followed by Voyager 2 in 2018 .

Initial results from the mission published in the journal Nature in November, 2019 describe how the craft have given scientists a pretty good idea of the shape of the heliosphere — the bubble that the Sun forms around itself and separates it from outer space.

The mission still has about five years left in its designated timeline.

• Space Science

• The Contents
• The Making of
• Where Are They Now
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Q & A with Ed Stone

golden record

Where are they now.

• frequently asked questions
• Q&A with Ed Stone

Mission Status

Instrument status.

Where are the Voyagers now?

To learn more about Voyager, zoom in and give the spacecraft a spin. View the full interactive experience at Eyes on the Solar System . Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

View Voyager

Space Flight Operations Schedule (SFOS)

SFOS files showing Voyager activity on Deep Space Network (DSN)

2024 Tracking Schedule

2023 tracking schedule, 2022 tracking schedule, 2021 tracking schedule, 2020 tracking schedule, 2019 tracking schedule, 2018 tracking schedule, 2017 tracking schedule, 2016 tracking schedule, 2015 tracking schedule, 2014 tracking schedule, 2013 tracking schedule, 2012 tracking schedule, 2011 tracking schedule, 2010 tracking schedule, 2009 tracking schedule, 2008 tracking schedule, 2007 tracking schedule, 2006 tracking schedule, 2005 tracking schedule, 2004 tracking schedule, 2003 tracking schedule, 2002 tracking schedule, 2001 tracking schedule, 2000 tracking schedule, 1999 tracking schedule, 1998 tracking schedule, 1997 tracking schedule, 1996 tracking schedule, 1995 tracking schedule, 1994 tracking schedule.

First to visit all four giant planets

Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to visit Uranus and Neptune. The probe is now in interstellar space, the region outside the heliopause, or the bubble of energetic particles and magnetic fields from the Sun.

Mission Type

What is Voyager 2?

NASA's Voyager 2 is the second spacecraft to enter interstellar space. On Dec. 10, 2018, the spacecraft joined its twin – Voyager 1 – as the only human-made objects to enter the space between the stars.

• Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to study all four of the solar system's giant planets at close range.
• Voyager 2 discovered a 14th moon at Jupiter.
• Voyager 2 was the first human-made object to fly past Uranus.
• At Uranus, Voyager 2 discovered 10 new moons and two new rings.
• Voyager 2 was the first human-made object to fly by Neptune.
• At Neptune, Voyager 2 discovered five moons, four rings, and a "Great Dark Spot."

In Depth: Voyager 2

The two-spacecraft Voyager missions were designed to replace original plans for a “Grand Tour” of the planets that would have used four highly complex spacecraft to explore the five outer planets during the late 1970s.

NASA canceled the plan in January 1972 largely due to anticipated costs (projected at $1 billion) and instead proposed to launch only two spacecraft in 1977 to Jupiter and Saturn. The two spacecraft were designed to explore the two gas giants in more detail than the two Pioneers (Pioneers 10 and 11) that preceded them.

In 1974, mission planners proposed a mission in which, if the first Voyager was successful, the second one could be redirected to Uranus and then Neptune using gravity assist maneuvers.

Each of the two spacecraft was equipped with a slow-scan color TV camera to take images of the planets and their moons and each also carried an extensive suite of instruments to record magnetic, atmospheric, lunar, and other data about the planetary systems.

The design of the two spacecraft was based on the older Mariners, and they were known as Mariner 11 and Mariner 12 until March 7, 1977, when NASA Administrator James C. Fletcher (1919-1991) announced that they would be renamed Voyager.

Power was provided by three plutonium oxide radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) mounted at the end of a boom.

Voyager 2 at Jupiter

Voyager 2 began transmitting images of Jupiter April 24, 1979, for time-lapse movies of atmospheric circulation. Unlike Voyager 1, Voyager 2 made close passes to the Jovian moons on its way into the system, with scientists especially interested in more information from Europa and Io (which necessitated a 10 hour-long “volcano watch”).

During its encounter, it relayed back spectacular photos of the entire Jovian system, including its moons Callisto, Ganymede, Europa (at a range of about 127,830 miles or 205,720 kilometers, much closer than Voyager 1), Io, and Amalthea, all of which had already been surveyed by Voyager 1.

Voyager 2’s closest encounter to Jupiter was at 22:29 UT July 9, 1979, at a range of about 400,785 miles (645,000 kilometers). It transmitted new data on the planet’s clouds, its newly discovered four moons, and ring system as well as 17,000 new pictures.

When the earlier Pioneers flew by Jupiter, they detected few atmospheric changes from one encounter to the second, but Voyager 2 detected many significant changes, including a drift in the Great Red Spot as well as changes in its shape and color.

With the combined cameras of the two Voyagers, at least 80% of the surfaces of Ganymede and Callisto were mapped out to a resolution of about 3 miles (5 kilometers).

Voyager 2 at Saturn

Following a course correction two hours after its closest approach to Jupiter, Voyager 2 sped to Saturn, its trajectory determined to a large degree by a decision made in January 1981, to try to send the spacecraft to Uranus and Neptune later in the decade.

Its encounter with the sixth planet began Aug. 22, 1981, two years after leaving the Jovian system, with imaging of the moon Iapetus. Once again, Voyager 2 repeated the photographic mission of its predecessor, although it actually flew about 14,290 miles (23,000 kilometers) closer to Saturn. The closest encounter to Saturn was at 01:21 UT Aug. 26, 1981, at a range of about 63,000 miles (101,000 kilometers).

The spacecraft provided more detailed images of the ring “spokes” and kinks, and also the F-ring and its shepherding moons, all found by Voyager 1. Voyager 2’s data suggested that Saturn’s A-ring was perhaps only about 980 feet (300 meters) thick.

As it flew behind and up past Saturn, the probe passed through the plane of Saturn’s rings at a speed of 8 miles per second (13 kilometers per second). For several minutes during this phase, the spacecraft was hit by thousands of micron-sized dust grains that created “puff” plasma as they were vaporized. Because the vehicle’s attitude was repeatedly shifted by the particles, attitude control jets automatically fired many times to stabilize the vehicle.

During the encounter, Voyager 2 also photographed the Saturn moons Hyperion (the “hamburger moon”), Enceladus, Tethys, and Phoebe as well as the more recently discovered Helene, Telesto and Calypso.

Voyager 2 at Uranus

Although Voyager 2 had fulfilled its primary mission goals with the two planetary encounters, mission planners directed the veteran spacecraft to Uranus—a journey that would take about 4.5 years.

In fact, its encounter with Jupiter was optimized in part to ensure that future planetary flybys would be possible.

The Uranus encounter’s geometry was also defined by the possibility of a future encounter with Neptune: Voyager 2 had only 5.5 hours of close study during its flyby.

Voyager 2 was the first human-made object to fly past the planet Uranus.

Long-range observations of the planet began Nov. 4, 1985, when signals took approximately 2.5 hours to reach Earth. Light conditions were 400 times less than terrestrial conditions. Closest approach to Uranus took place at 17:59 UT Jan. 24, 1986, at a range of about 50,640 miles (81,500 kilometers).

During its flyby, Voyager 2 discovered 10 new moons (given such names as Puck, Portia, Juliet, Cressida, Rosalind, Belinda, Desdemona, Cordelia, Ophelia, and Bianca -- obvious allusions to Shakespeare), two new rings in addition to the “older” nine rings, and a magnetic field tilted at 55 degrees off-axis and off-center.

The spacecraft found wind speeds in Uranus’ atmosphere as high as 450 miles per hour (724 kilometers per hour) and found evidence of a boiling ocean of water some 497 miles (800 kilometers) below the top cloud surface. Its rings were found to be extremely variable in thickness and opacity.

Voyager 2 also returned spectacular photos of Miranda, Oberon, Ariel, Umbriel, and Titania, five of Uranus’ larger moons. In flying by Miranda at a range of only 17,560 miles (28,260 kilometers), the spacecraft came closest to any object so far in its nearly decade-long travels. Images of the moon showed a strange object whose surface was a mishmash of peculiar features that seemed to have no rhyme or reason. Uranus itself appeared generally featureless.

The spectacular news of the Uranus encounter was interrupted the same week by the tragic Challenger accident that killed seven astronauts during their space shuttle launch Jan. 28, 1986.

Voyager 2 at Neptune

Following the Uranus encounter, the spacecraft performed a single midcourse correction Feb. 14, 1986—the largest ever made by Voyager 2—to set it on a precise course to Neptune.

Voyager 2’s encounter with Neptune capped a 4.3 billion-mile (7 billion-kilometer) journey when, on Aug. 25, 1989, at 03:56 UT, it flew about 2,980 miles (4,800 kilometers) over the cloud tops of the giant planet, the closest of its four flybys. It was the first human-made object to fly by the planet. Its 10 instruments were still in working order at the time.

During the encounter, the spacecraft discovered six new moons (Proteus, Larissa, Despina, Galatea, Thalassa, and Naiad) and four new rings.

The planet itself was found to be more active than previously believed, with 680-mile (1,100-kilometer) per hour winds. Hydrogen was found to be the most common atmospheric element, although the abundant methane gave the planet its blue appearance.

Images revealed details of the three major features in the planetary clouds—the Lesser Dark Spot, the Great Dark Spot, and Scooter.

Voyager photographed two-thirds of Neptune’s largest moon Triton, revealing the coldest known planetary body in the solar system and a nitrogen ice “volcano” on its surface. Spectacular images of its southern hemisphere showed a strange, pitted cantaloupe-type terrain.

The flyby of Neptune concluded Voyager 2’s planetary encounters, which spanned an amazing 12 years in deep space, virtually accomplishing the originally planned “Grand Tour” of the solar system, at least in terms of targets reached if not in science accomplished.

Voyager 2's Interstellar Mission

Once past the Neptune system, Voyager 2 followed a course below the ecliptic plane and out of the solar system. Approximately 35 million miles (56 million kilometers) past the encounter, Voyager 2’s instruments were put in low power mode to conserve energy.

After the Neptune encounter, NASA formally renamed the entire project the Voyager Interstellar Mission (VIM).

Of the four spacecraft sent out to beyond the environs of the solar system in the 1970s, three of them -- Voyagers 1 and 2 and Pioneer 11 -- were all heading in the direction of the solar apex, i.e., the apparent direction of the Sun’s travel in the Milky Way galaxy, and thus would be expected to reach the heliopause earlier than Pioneer 10 which was headed in the direction of the heliospheric tail.

In November 1998, 21 years after launch, nonessential instruments were permanently turned off, leaving seven instruments still operating.

At 9.6 miles per second (15.4 kilometers per second) relative to the Sun, it will take about 19,390 years for Voyager 2 to traverse a single light year.

Asif Siddiqi

Beyond Earth: A Chronicle of Deep Space Exploration

Through the turn of the century, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) continued to receive ultraviolet and particle fields data. For example, on Jan. 12, 2001, an immense shock wave that had blasted out of the outer heliosphere on July 14, 2000, finally reached Voyager 2. During its six-month journey, the shock wave had plowed through the solar wind, sweeping up and accelerating charged particles. The spacecraft provided important information on high-energy shock-energized ions.

On Aug. 30, 2007, Voyager 2 passed the termination shock and then entered the heliosheath. By Nov. 5, 2017, the spacecraft was 116.167 AU (about 10.8 billion miles or about 17.378 billion kilometers) from Earth, moving at a velocity of 9.6 miles per second (15.4 kilometers per second) relative to the Sun, heading in the direction of the constellation Telescopium. At this velocity, it would take about 19,390 years to traverse a single light-year.

On July 8, 2019, Voyager 2 successfully fired up its trajectory correction maneuver thrusters and will be using them to control the pointing of the spacecraft for the foreseeable future. Voyager 2 last used those thrusters during its encounter with Neptune in 1989.

The spacecraft's aging attitude control thrusters have been experiencing degradation that required them to fire an increasing and untenable number of pulses to keep the spacecraft's antenna pointed at Earth. Voyager 1 had switched to its trajectory correction maneuver thrusters for the same reason in January 2018.

To ensure that both vintage robots continue to return the best scientific data possible from the frontiers of space, mission engineers are implementing a new plan to manage them. The plan involves making difficult choices, particularly about instruments and thrusters.

National Space Science Data Center: Voyager 2

A library of technical details and historic perspective.

A comprehensive history of missions sent to explore beyond Earth.

Discover More Topics From NASA

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Earth to Voyager 2: After a Year in the Darkness, We Can Talk to You Again

NASA’s sole means of sending commands to the distant space probe, launched 44 years ago, is being restored on Friday.

By Shannon Stirone

In the nearly 44 years since NASA launched Voyager 2 , the spacecraft has gone beyond the frontiers of human exploration by visiting Uranus, Neptune and, eventually, interstellar space .

Last March, the agency was compelled to shut down its only means of reaching 12 billion miles across the heavens to this robotic trailblazer . On Friday, Earth’s haunting silence will come to an end as NASA switches that communications channel back on, restoring humanity’s ability to say hello to its distant explorer.

Because of the direction in which it is flying out of the solar system, Voyager 2 can only receive commands from Earth via one antenna in the entire world. It’s called DSS 43 and it is in Canberra, Australia. It is part of the Deep Space Network, or DSN , which along with stations in California and Spain, is how NASA and allied space agencies stay in touch with the armada of robotic spacecraft exploring everything from the sun’s corona to the regions of the Kuiper belt beyond the orbit of Pluto . (Voyager 2’s twin, Voyager 1, is able to communicate with the other two stations.)

A round-trip communication with Voyager 2 takes about 35 hours — 17 hours and 35 minutes each way .

DSS 43 is a 70-meter dish that has been operating since 1973. It was long overdue for upgrades, especially with new robotic missions headed to Mars this year and even more preparing to launch to study other worlds in the months and years to come. So last year, the dish was switched off and dismantled, even though the shutdown posed considerable risk to the geriatric Voyager 2 probe.

Like everything in 2020, what would have been a normal antenna upgrade was anything but. Usually, the mission’s managers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California would send about 30 experts to oversee the dish’s makeover. But restrictions imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic reduced the team to four.

At the Canberra station, the crew working on the upgrade had to be separated into three smaller teams, said Glen Nagle, outreach manager at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex. “So there was always a backup team in case anybody got sick, and you could put that team in isolation, and the other team could come in and cover for them.” They also split the teams into morning and evening shifts to ensure social distancing.

While Voyager 2 was able to call home on the Canberra site’s smaller dishes during the shutdown, none of them could send commands to the probe. If anything had gone wrong aboard the probe during the last year, NASA would have been powerless to fix it.

Although NASA has been unable to send full commands to Voyager 2, it did send one test message to the spacecraft at the end of October when the antenna was mostly reassembled. A device on board called the command loss timer, something like a dead man’s switch, is used to help the spacecraft determine whether it’s lost contact with Earth and should protect itself by going into a form of electronic slumber. The October test reset the timer, and successfully told the spacecraft to continue operating.

“I think there was probably a big sigh of relief there,” Mr. Nagle said. “And we were very pleased to be able to confirm that the spacecraft was still talking to us.”

The work got high marks from NASA officials in the United States.

“The DSN folks in Canberra did a remarkable job under the pandemic conditions just to upgrade DSS 43,” said Suzanne Dodd, the Voyager mission project manager and director of the Interplanetary Network Directorate at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “I’ve got 100 percent confidence in that antenna, that it will operate just fine for a few more decades. Long past when the Voyagers are done.”

Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 hold the records for the farthest a spacecraft has ever traveled and for the longest operating mission. Voyager 2 has had a few hiccups over the years, but it is still feeling its way around in the dark, making discoveries about the boundaries that separate our solar system from the rest of the Milky Way galaxy .

“I’ve seen scientists whose backgrounds are in astrophysics now looking at Voyager data and trying to match that up with data they have from ground-based telescopes or other space-based telescopes,” Ms. Dodd said. “That’s kind of exciting to go from a planetary mission to the heliophysics mission and now, practically into an astrophysics mission.”

While Voyager 2 keeps chugging along, Ms. Dodd and her colleagues are preparing to switch off the heater for one of its scientific sensors, the Low Energy Charged Particle instrument. Doing so will ensure that the spacecraft’s limited power supply can keep its other systems, particularly its communications antenna, warm enough to function.

While Ms. Dodd thinks taking such steps could reduce the spacecraft’s scientific output, the main goal now is longevity.

“The challenge is not in the new technology, or the great discoveries,” Ms. Dodd said. “The challenge is in keeping it operating as long as possible, and returning the science data as long as possible.”

The team estimates that both spacecraft can operate for another four to eight years, and NASA last year granted the team three more years of flying time.

“The spacecraft continues to plug along,” Ms. Dodd said. “It always surprises me.”

Sync your calendar with the solar system

Never miss an eclipse, a meteor shower, a rocket launch or any other astronomical and space event that's out of this world.

Exploring the Solar System

A guide to the spacecraft beyond Earth’s orbit.

Using information from a NASA official, an earlier version of this article misstated a change that was made to the Voyager 2 spacecraft. The heater for the spacecraft's Low Energy Charged Particle instrument was switched off, not the instrument itself.

How we handle corrections

What’s Up in Space and Astronomy

Keep track of things going on in our solar system and all around the universe..

Never miss an eclipse, a meteor shower, a rocket launch or any other 2024 event  that’s out of this world with  our space and astronomy calendar .

Scientists may have discovered a major flaw in their understanding of dark energy, a mysterious cosmic force . That could be good news for the fate of the universe.

A new set of computer simulations, which take into account the effects of stars moving past our solar system, has effectively made it harder to predict Earth’s future and reconstruct its past.

Dante Lauretta, the planetary scientist who led the OSIRIS-REx mission to retrieve a handful of space dust , discusses his next final frontier.

A nova named T Coronae Borealis lit up the night about 80 years ago. Astronomers say it’s expected to put on another show  in the coming months.

Is Pluto a planet? And what is a planet, anyway? Test your knowledge here .

NASA Mission Update: Voyager 2 Communications Pause

Artist concept showing NASA’s Voyager spacecraft against a backdrop of stars.

UPDATE, Aug. 4, 2023: NASA has reestablished full communications with Voyager 2.

The agency’s Deep Space Network facility in Canberra, Australia, sent the equivalent of an interstellar “shout” more than 12.3 billion miles (19.9 billion kilometers) to Voyager 2, instructing the spacecraft to reorient itself and turn its antenna back to Earth. With a one-way light time of 18.5 hours for the command to reach Voyager, it took 37 hours for mission controllers to learn whether the command worked. At 12:29 a.m. EDT on Aug. 4, the spacecraft began returning science and telemetry data, indicating it is operating normally and that it remains on its expected trajectory.

UPDATE, Aug. 1, 2023: Using multiple antennas, NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) was able to detect a carrier signal from Voyager 2. A carrier signal is what the spacecraft uses to send data back to Earth. The signal is too faint for data to be extracted, but the detection confirms that the spacecraft is still operating. The spacecraft also continues on its expected trajectory. Although the mission expects the spacecraft to point its antenna at Earth in mid-October, the team will attempt to command Voyager sooner, while its antenna is still pointed away from Earth. To do this, a DSN antenna will be used to “shout” the command to Voyager to turn its antenna. This intermediary attempt may not work, in which case the team will wait for the spacecraft to automatically reset its orientation in October.

Once the spacecraft’s antenna is realigned with Earth, communications should resume.

A series of planned commands sent to NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft July 21 inadvertently caused the antenna to point 2 degrees away from Earth. As a result, Voyager 2 is currently unable to receive commands or transmit data back to Earth.

Voyager 2 is located more than 12.3 billion miles (19.9 billion kilometers) from Earth, and this change has interrupted communication between Voyager 2 and the ground antennas of NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN). Data being sent by the spacecraft is no longer reaching the DSN, and the spacecraft is not receiving commands from ground controllers.

Voyager 2 is programmed to reset its orientation multiple times each year to keep its antenna pointing at Earth; the next reset will occur on Oct. 15, which should enable communication to resume. The mission team expects Voyager 2 to remain on its planned trajectory during the quiet period.

Get the Latest JPL News

Voyager 1, which is almost 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth, continues to operate normally.

A division of Caltech in Pasadena, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory built and operates the Voyager spacecraft. The Voyager missions are a part of the NASA Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more information about the Voyager spacecraft, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/voyager

News Media Contact

Calla Cofield

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

626-808-2469

[email protected]

Suggested Searches

• Climate Change
• Expedition 64
• Mars perseverance
• SpaceX Crew-2
• International Space Station
• View All Topics A-Z

Humans in Space

Earth & climate, the solar system, the universe, aeronautics, learning resources, news & events.

NASA Receives 13 Nominations for the 28th Annual Webby Awards

Through Astronaut Eyes, Virtual Reality Propels Gateway Forward  

How NASA Spotted El Niño Changing the Saltiness of Coastal Waters

• Search All NASA Missions
• A to Z List of Missions
• Upcoming Launches and Landings
• Spaceships and Rockets
• Communicating with Missions
• James Webb Space Telescope
• Hubble Space Telescope
• Why Go to Space
• Astronauts Home
• Commercial Space
• Destinations
• Living in Space
• Explore Earth Science
• Earth, Our Planet
• Earth Science in Action
• Earth Multimedia
• Earth Science Researchers
• Pluto & Dwarf Planets
• Asteroids, Comets & Meteors
• The Kuiper Belt
• The Oort Cloud
• Skywatching
• The Search for Life in the Universe
• Black Holes
• The Big Bang
• Dark Energy & Dark Matter
• Earth Science
• Planetary Science
• Astrophysics & Space Science
• The Sun & Heliophysics
• Biological & Physical Sciences
• Lunar Science
• Citizen Science
• Astromaterials
• Aeronautics Research
• Human Space Travel Research
• Science in the Air
• NASA Aircraft
• Flight Innovation
• Supersonic Flight
• Air Traffic Solutions
• Green Aviation Tech
• Drones & You
• Technology Transfer & Spinoffs
• Space Travel Technology
• Technology Living in Space
• Manufacturing and Materials
• Science Instruments
• For Kids and Students
• For Educators
• For Colleges and Universities
• For Professionals
• Science for Everyone
• Requests for Exhibits, Artifacts, or Speakers
• STEM Engagement at NASA
• NASA's Impacts
• Centers and Facilities
• Directorates
• Organizations
• People of NASA
• Internships
• Our History
• Doing Business with NASA
• Get Involved
• Aeronáutica
• Ciencias Terrestres
• Sistema Solar
• All NASA News
• Video Series on NASA+
• Newsletters
• Social Media
• Media Resources
• Upcoming Launches & Landings
• Virtual Events
• Sounds and Ringtones
• Interactives
• STEM Multimedia

NASA Technology Helps Guard Against Lunar Dust

From NASA’s First Astronaut Class to Artemis II: The Importance of Military Jet Pilot Experience

NASA Shares Medical Expertise with New Space Station Partners

Commercial Space Frequently Asked Questions

NASA’s Lola Fatoyinbo Receives Royal Geographical Society Prize

Earth Day Toolkit

More Than 36,000 Volunteers Helped Do NASA Eclipse Science

NASA Names Finalists of the Power to Explore Challenge

NASA’s LRO Finds Photo Op as It Zips Past SKorea’s Danuri Moon Orbiter

NASA’s New Hubble E-Book Spotlights Universe’s Best-Kept Dark Secrets

Hubble Peers at Pair of Closely Interacting Galaxies

SRPD Gamma-ray Astrophysics

Making Ultra-fast Electron Measurements in Multiple Directions to Reveal the Secrets of the Aurora

NASA Langley Team to Study Weather During Eclipse Using Uncrewed Vehicles

NASA Noise Prediction Tool Supports Users in Air Taxi Industry

ARMD Solicitations

Tech Today: Synthetic DNA Diagnoses COVID, Cancer

David Woerner

NASA Partnerships Bring 2024 Total Solar Eclipse to Everyone

Launch Week Event Details

La presentación del X-59 de la NASA personifica la tradición aeronáutica

Nasa mission update: voyager 2 communications pause, jet propulsion laboratory.

Once the spacecraft’s antenna is realigned with Earth, communications should resume.

UPDATE, Aug. 4, 2023: NASA has reestablished full communications with Voyager 2.

The agency’s Deep Space Network facility in Canberra, Australia, sent the equivalent of an interstellar “shout” more than 12.3 billion miles (19.9 billion kilometers) to Voyager 2, instructing the spacecraft to reorient itself and turn its antenna back to Earth. With a one-way light time of 18.5 hours for the command to reach Voyager, it took 37 hours for mission controllers to learn whether the command worked. At 12:29 a.m. EDT on Aug. 4, the spacecraft began returning science and telemetry data, indicating it is operating normally and that it remains on its expected trajectory.

UPDATE, Aug. 1, 2023:   Using multiple antennas, NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) was able to detect a carrier signal from Voyager 2. A carrier signal is what the spacecraft uses to send data back to Earth. The signal is too faint for data to be extracted, but the detection confirms that the spacecraft is still operating. The spacecraft also continues on its expected trajectory. Although the mission expects the spacecraft to point its antenna at Earth in mid-October, the team will attempt to command Voyager sooner, while its antenna is still pointed away from Earth. To do this, a DSN antenna will be used to “shout” the command to Voyager to turn its antenna. This intermediary attempt may not work, in which case the team will wait for the spacecraft to automatically reset its orientation in October.  

Editor’s note:   The following was posted on NASA’s  The Sun Spot blog  on July 28.

A series of planned commands sent to NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft July 21 inadvertently caused the antenna to point 2 degrees away from Earth. As a result, Voyager 2 is currently unable to receive commands or transmit data back to Earth.

Voyager 2 is located more than 12.3 billion miles (19.9 billion kilometers) from Earth, and this change has interrupted communication between Voyager 2 and the ground antennas of NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN). Data being sent by the spacecraft is no longer reaching the DSN, and the spacecraft is not receiving commands from ground controllers.

Voyager 2 is programmed to reset its orientation multiple times each year to keep its antenna pointing at Earth; the next reset will occur on Oct. 15, which should enable communication to resume. The mission team expects Voyager 2 to remain on its planned trajectory during the quiet period.

Voyager 1, which is almost 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth, continues to operate normally.

A division of Caltech in Pasadena, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory built and operates the Voyager spacecraft. The Voyager missions are a part of the NASA Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more information about the Voyager spacecraft, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/voyager

Media Contact

Calla Cofield Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 626-808-2469 [email protected]

• The Inventory

NASA Detects 'Heartbeat' Message From Voyager 2 After Inadvertently Losing Contact

The legendary probe went silent two weeks ago as the result of nasa transmitting a potentially faulty command..

NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft, currently 12.4 billion miles (19.9 billion kilometers) from Earth, has phoned home, essentially telling mission controllers that the recent rumors of its impending death have been greatly exaggerated. The ongoing communications problem, however, remains unresolved.

In a mission update tweeted earlier today, JPL announced that the Deep Space Network (DSN) snagged a carrier signal from Voyager 2, confirming that the 46-year-old spacecraft is in good health. NASA’s DSN consists of a worldwide network of large antennas and communication facilities that support interplanetary spacecraft, among other missions. Receipt of this “heartbeat” signal, as it’s also known, is a massive relief and a positive sign, but Voyager 2 is not yet out of the interstellar woods.

The problem started two weeks ago after NASA transmitted a potentially faulty command , causing Voyager 2’s antenna to point two degrees away from Earth. The probe is still transmitting data, but those signals are now bypassing Earth and are no longer being received. Consequently, “data being sent by the spacecraft is no longer reaching the DSN, and the spacecraft is not receiving commands from ground controllers,” according to NASA. Signals take approximately 18.5 hours to reach Voyager 2 at its present distance.

Suzanne Dodd, project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), said mission controllers will now attempt to reorient Voyager 2’s antenna such that it correctly points towards Earth, as she told ABC News. JPL controllers are planning to send these commands “several times,” Dodd added. Should these attempts fail, NASA will have to wait until October 15 for an autonomous system reset, which the probe does several times each year to keep its antenna in the correct position.

Related story: NASA Power Hack Extends 45-Year Voyager 2 Mission Even Longer

Launched by NASA on August 20, 1977, Voyager 2 explored the outer solar system planets in extraordinary detail. It’s famous for its grand tour of the four giant planets—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—providing invaluable data and images of their atmospheres, moons, and magnetospheres. Up until this latest communications issue, Voyager 2 continued to send data back to Earth as it ventured deeper into interstellar space, operating well beyond its original mission parameters.

Its twin, Voyager 1, launched into space on September 5, 1977, performing flybys of Jupiter and Saturn, and it remains the farthest human-made object from Earth, and it too is sending data back from interstellar space. Both probes are expected to remain operational for several more years, so hopefully NASA will get this sorted out such that these historic missions can continue.

For more spaceflight in your life, follow us on Twitter and bookmark Gizmodo’s dedicated Spaceflight page .

• Today's news
• Reviews and deals
• Climate change
• 2024 election
• Fall allergies
• Health news
• Mental health
• Sexual health
• Family health
• So mini ways
• Unapologetically
• Buying guides

Entertainment

• How to Watch
• My watchlist
• Stock market
• Biden economy
• Personal finance
• Stocks: most active
• Stocks: gainers
• Stocks: losers
• Trending tickers
• World indices
• US Treasury bonds
• Top mutual funds
• Highest open interest
• Highest implied volatility
• Currency converter
• Basic materials
• Communication services
• Consumer cyclical
• Consumer defensive
• Financial services
• Industrials
• Real estate
• Mutual funds
• Credit cards
• Credit card rates
• Balance transfer credit cards
• Business credit cards
• Cash back credit cards
• Rewards credit cards
• Travel credit cards
• Checking accounts
• Online checking accounts
• High-yield savings accounts
• Money market accounts
• Personal loans
• Student loans
• Car insurance
• Home buying
• Options pit
• Investment ideas
• Research reports
• Fantasy football
• Pro Pick 'Em
• College Pick 'Em
• Fantasy baseball
• Fantasy hockey
• Fantasy basketball
• Download the app
• Daily fantasy
• Scores and schedules
• GameChannel
• World Baseball Classic
• Premier League
• CONCACAF League
• Champions League
• Motorsports
• Horse racing
• Newsletters

New on Yahoo

• Privacy Dashboard

NASA Detects 'Heartbeat' Message From Voyager 2 After Inadvertently Losing Contact

NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft, currently 12.4 billion miles (19.9 billion kilometers) from Earth, has phoned home, essentially telling mission controllers that the recent rumors of its impending death have been greatly exaggerated. The ongoing communications problem, however, remains unresolved.

In a mission update tweeted earlier today, JPL announced that the Deep Space Network (DSN) snagged a carrier signal from Voyager 2, confirming that the 46-year-old spacecraft is in good health. NASA’s DSN consists of a worldwide network of large antennas and communication facilities that support interplanetary spacecraft, among other missions. Receipt of this “heartbeat” signal, as it’s also known, is a massive relief and a positive sign, but Voyager 2 is not yet out of the interstellar woods.

These Are the Best Desktop Apps for Gmail

9 of the Best Flops on Display at the Museum of Failure

From Disney+ to Max, Here Are the Best Streaming Services

Earth to Voyager... 📡 The Deep Space Network has picked up a carrier signal from @NASAVoyager 2 during its regular scan of the sky. A bit like hearing the spacecraft's “heartbeat," it confirms the spacecraft is still broadcasting, which engineers expected. https://t.co/tPcCyjMjJY — NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) August 1, 2023

The problem started two weeks ago after NASA transmitted a potentially faulty command , causing Voyager 2’s antenna to point two degrees away from Earth. The probe is still transmitting data, but those signals are now bypassing Earth and are no longer being received. Consequently, “data being sent by the spacecraft is no longer reaching the DSN, and the spacecraft is not receiving commands from ground controllers,” according to NASA. Signals take approximately 18.5 hours to reach Voyager 2 at its present distance.

Suzanne Dodd, project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), said mission controllers will now attempt to reorient Voyager 2’s antenna such that it correctly points towards Earth, as she told ABC News. JPL controllers are planning to send these commands “several times,” Dodd added. Should these attempts fail, NASA will have to wait until October 15 for an autonomous system reset, which the probe does several times each year to keep its antenna in the correct position.

Launched by NASA on August 20, 1977, Voyager 2 explored the outer solar system planets in extraordinary detail. It’s famous for its grand tour of the four giant planets—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—providing invaluable data and images of their atmospheres, moons, and magnetospheres. Up until this latest communications issue, Voyager 2 continued to send data back to Earth as it ventured deeper into interstellar space, operating well beyond its original mission parameters.

Its twin, Voyager 1, launched into space on September 5, 1977, performing flybys of Jupiter and Saturn, and it remains the farthest human-made object from Earth, and it too is sending data back from interstellar space. Both probes are expected to remain operational for several more years, so hopefully NASA will get this sorted out such that these historic missions can continue.

For more spaceflight in your life, follow us on Twitter and bookmark Gizmodo’s dedicated Spaceflight page .

More from Gizmodo

The Best Free AI Art Generators, Ranked

The Best Free TV and Movie Channels For Every Major Streaming Device

Sign up for Gizmodo's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook , Twitter and Instagram .

Click here to read the full article.

Recommended Stories

Here’s who will pay for biden’s student loan cancellations.

Cancelling student debt is a windfall for the borrowers who benefit, but taxpayers foot the bill.

2024 NBA Mock Draft 6.0: Projections for every pick following March Madness

With the NCAA tournament behind us, here's an updated look at Yahoo Sports' first- and second-round projections for the 2024 NBA Draft.

2025 Toyota 4Runner (finally!) revealed, and the new Trailhunter is extremely cool

The 2025 Toyota 4Runner is finally arriving this fall with a full lineup including returning TRD Pro and new Trailhunter. Hybrid power now available.

Republicans (?!?) are killing a tax cut

In a flip of the usual priorities, Senate Republicans seem likely to kill a set of tax cuts that have already passed the House and are broadly popular. Here's why.

Adam Silver: Raptors’ Jontay Porter accused of ‘cardinal sin’ in betting scandal, full ban a possibility

The league is investigating Jontay Porter over several betting irregularities in which player props on him all hit after he left games early.

2025 Toyota 4Runner vs Land Cruiser vs the old 4Runner: How they compare

The 2025 Toyota 4Runner looks like it'll be a clear improvement to its predecessor. Though looking at the specs, it may pose a problem for the Land Cruiser

2024 NFL Draft guide: 32 teams, 32 needs, picks, best fits and more

What selections does your team have? What areas should it address? Who's the dream fantasy pick? We cover all that and more for every franchise right here.

Why the Fed risks relearning the painful inflation lessons of the 1970s

The Fed is aiming to avoid a repeat of the double inflation episode that rocked the 1970s and early 1980s.

Report: Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore planned significant payroll cuts with Timberwolves

Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore reportedly planned to bring the Timberwolves below the projected luxury tax threshold next season, which left Glen Taylor very concerned.

The wildest Lionel Messi-Inter Miami dream ends with a whimper in Monterrey

Inter Miami's ambitious quest for a Club World Cup berth came to an abrupt end as it was outclassed by Monterrey in Wednesday's CONCACAF Champions Cup quarterfinals, exposing the gap between MLS and Liga MX.

Mock Draft Monday with PFF's Trevor Sikkema: Cowboys fill needs, Vikings and Broncos land QBs

We continue our 'Mock Draft Monday' series with PFF's Trevor Sikkema joining Matt Harmon the pod. Sikkema provides his five favorite picks from his latest mock draft as well as his least favorite pick. The PFF draft expert also shares what goes into his methodology when crafting a mock, especially as inch even closer to night one of the draft.

Rashee Rice didn't learn from the past, maybe other NFL players will learn from Rice

Rashee Rice should have taken a lesson from recent history.

2024 NFL Draft: Top 100 big board goes in-depth on names to know ahead of marquee offseason event

Yahoo Sports' Nate Tice has Drake Maye at No. 1, Caleb Williams at No. 2, and a whole lot of intrigue after in a deep class at wide receiver, offensive line and cornerback.

Stephen Strasburg retires after years of injury struggles and months-long standoff with Nationals

Stephen Strasburg made eight starts after signing a $245 million contract in 2019.

Ross meets with Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer, Coach Prime’s team building & is Kentucky locking in on Scott Drew?

Dan Wetzel, Ross Dellenger & SI’s Pat Forde discuss Scott Drew being a top candidate at Kentucky, the possibility of a college football super league, the Kalen DeBoer era for Alabama football, and Deion Sanders recruiting methods

2024 NFL Draft: Top 10 offensive line prospects anchored by stars from Penn State, Notre Dame

It's close between the top two for Yahoo Sports' Nate Tice, and there are a ton of other guys worth getting excited about in a deep class.

Shohei Ohtani's ex-interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara, reportedly in negotiations to plead guilty in gambling scandal

Ohtani has been interviewed by the feds as part of the investigation, per the New York Times.

2025 Ram 1500's 'Hurricane' I6 tops V8 in fuel economy

2025 Ram 1500 full-size pickup truck now has fuel economy numbers, and the Hurricane inline-six delivers better numbers than the V8 it replaces.

2024 NFL Draft: Favorite players outside the top 50

These aren't household names, but there are plenty of quality, if imperfect, prospects that should be available on Day 2 of the NFL Draft and beyond.

Jrue Holiday, Celtics reportedly reach agreement on 4-year, $135 million extension

Holiday is declining his $37.3 million player option for 2024-2025.

Voyager 2: the story of its mission so far – in pictures

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Share via Email

Since launching in 1977 , the Nasa probe has captured never-before-seen images of the solar system

• Nasa’s Voyager 2 sends back its first message from interstellar space

Mon 4 Nov 2019 17.10 GMT Last modified on Mon 4 Nov 2019 23.12 GMT

Photograph: JPL-Caltech/Nasa

Photograph: Nasa

Photograph: JPL/Nasa

Photograph: JPL-Caltech/NASA

Photograph: JPL/NASA

Photograph: Corbis/Getty Images

Photograph: Roger Ressmeyer/Corbis Getty Images

Photograph: Nasa Photo/Alamy

More galleries

Most popular.

NASA engineers discover why Voyager 1 is sending a stream of gibberish from outside our solar system

F or the past five months, the Voyager 1 spacecraft has been sending a steady stream of unreadable gibberish back to Earth. Now, NASA engineers finally know why.

The 46-year-old spacecraft sends regular radio signals as it drifts further from our solar system. But in November 2023, the signals suddenly became garbled, meaning  scientists were unable to read any of its data, and they were left mystified about the fault's origins. 

In March, NASA engineers sent a command prompt, or "poke," to the craft to get a readout from its flight data subsystem (FDS) — which packages Voyager 1's science and engineering data before beaming it back to Earth. 

After decoding the spacecraft's response, the engineers have found the source of the problem: The FDS's memory has been corrupted.

Related: NASA's Voyager 1 sends readable message to Earth after 4 nail-biting months of gibberish

"The team suspects that a single chip responsible for storing part of the affected portion of the FDS memory isn't working," NASA said in a blog post Wednesday (March 13) . "Engineers can't determine with certainty what caused the issue. Two possibilities are that the chip could have been hit by an energetic particle from space or that it simply may have worn out after 46 years."

Although it may take several months, the engineers say they can find a workaround to run the FDS without the fried chip — restoring the spacecraft's messaging output and enabling it to continue to send readable information from outside our solar system.

Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 zipped past Saturn and Jupiter in 1979 and 1980 before flying out into interstellar space in 2012. It is now recording the conditions outside of the sun's protective magnetic field, or heliosphere, which blankets our solar system.

Voyager 1 is currently more than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth, and it takes 22.5 hours for any radio signal to travel from the craft to our planet.

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

The first spacecraft to explore beyond the solar system started spouting gibberish late last year. Now, NASA knows why.

NASA engineers have discovered the cause of a communications breakdown between Earth and the interstellar explorer Voyager 1. It would appear that a small portion of corrupted memory exists in one of the spacecraft's computers. 

The glitch caused Voyager 1 to send unreadable data back to Earth, and is found in the NASA spacecraft's flight data subsystem (FDS). That's the system responsible for packaging the probe's science and engineering data before the telemetry modulation unit (TMU) and radio transmitter send it back to mission control. 

The source of the issue began to reveal itself when Voyager 1 operators sent the spacecraft a "poke" on March 3, 2024. This was intended to prompt FDS to send a full memory readout back to Earth.

The readout confirmed to the NASA team that about 3% of the FDS memory had been corrupted, and that this was preventing the computer from carrying out its normal operations.

Related: NASA finds clue while solving Voyager 1's communication breakdown case

Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 became the first human-made object to leave the solar system and enter interstellar space in 2012. Voyager 2 followed its spacecraft sibling out of the solar system in 2018, and is still operational and communicating well with  Earth.

After 11 years of interstellar exploration, in Nov. 2023, Voyager 1's binary code — the computer language it uses to communicate with Earth — stopped making sense. Its 0's and 1's didn't mean anything anymore.

Get the Space.com Newsletter

Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!

"Effectively, the call between the spacecraft and the Earth was still connected, but Voyager's 'voice' was replaced with a monotonous dial tone," Voyager 1's engineering team previously  told Space.com .

The team strongly suspects this glitch is the result of a single chip that's responsible for storing part of the affected portion of the FDS memory ceasing to work.

Currently, however, NASA can’t say for sure what exactly caused that particular issue. The chip could have been struck by a high-speed energetic particle from space or, after 46 years serving Voyager 1, it may simply have worn out.

—  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

Voyager 1 currently sits around 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth, which means it takes 22.5 hours to receive a radio signal from it — and another 22.5 hours for the spacecraft to receive a response via the Deep Space Network's antennas. Solving this communication issue is thus no mean feat.

Yet, NASA scientists and engineers are optimistic they can find a way to help FDS operate normally, even without the unusable memory hardware.

Solving this issue could take weeks or even months, according to NASA — but if it is resolved, Voyager 1 should be able to resume returning science data about what lies outside 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.

SpaceX to launch advanced weather satellite for US Space Force today

SpaceX launches 23 Starlink satellites in nighttime liftoff (photos, video)

Stars make a bigger mess in old galaxies, and scientists just figured out why

Most Popular

By Jeff Spry April 10, 2024

By Mike Wall April 10, 2024

By Robert Z. Pearlman April 10, 2024

By Harry Baker April 10, 2024

By Robert Lea April 10, 2024

By Daisy Dobrijevic April 10, 2024

By Elizabeth Howell April 09, 2024

By Daisy Dobrijevic April 09, 2024

By Robert Lea April 09, 2024

By Josh Dinner April 09, 2024

• 2 Top total solar eclipses to look out for over the next decade
• 3 SpaceX to launch advanced weather satellite for US Space Force today
• 4 Japanese astronauts will join NASA moon landings in return for lunar rover
• 5 Why Peter Higgs leaves a massive legacy in the field of physics

MORE SECTIONS

• Social Casino

MORE FROM THE SUN

• Newsletters

Nasa puzzled over Voyager 1 probe sending ‘gibberish messages’ from 15 billion miles away – and reveals two theories

• Jona Jaupi , Technology and Science Reporter
• Published : 16:50 ET, Apr 5 2024
• Updated : 16:56 ET, Apr 5 2024

NASA's Voyager 1 has been acting oddly and sending back nonsensical bits of data.

Voyager 1 , launched into deep space by Nasa in 1977, is currently the most distant human-made object from Earth.

The probe is currently around 15 billion miles from Earth and has been active for 4.5 decades.

However, for the past 5 months, the spacecraft has been sending gibberish back to Earth.

The random bits of 1s and 0s sent by Voyager 1 have left Nasa engineers baffled.

In computer-speak, binary data describes a certain line of current in an electrical circuit being on (1) or off (0). 

Read more on Nasa

Nasa unveils Moon CAR that'll take astronauts to 'unreachable' destinations

Nasa plans ‘Moon Standard Time’ for lunar visitors but seconds are different

"The team suspects that a single chip responsible for storing part of the affected portion of the FDS memory isn't working," NASA said in a blog post on March 13 .

While the engineers can not determine what caused the issue, they came up with two possibilities.

The first theory is that Voyager's chip was hit by an energetic particle from space.

The second is that the spacecraft is simply worn out after 46 years of service in deep space.

Most read in Science

Alien 'super-Earth' planet found ‘locked’ with half in scorching heat

Space-nuke attack on Musk's Starlink would ‘indiscriminately affect life on Earth

Elon Musk predicts AI will be ‘smarter than smartest human’ by end of 2026

Real multiverse could exist and be 'infinitely bigger' than ever imagined

To attempt to tackle the problem, scientists have been sending commands to the probe.

However, because each message takes around 22 hours to send, it can take days to get a response back.

This isn't the first time that Voyager 1 has had communication issues - a few months ago it was spewing strange binary data.

Then in May 2022, the probe sent back data about its location and orientation in  space  that conflicted with what Nasa knew about its position.

NASA'S VOYAGER 1 AND 2

Voyager was launched from Cape Canaveral along with Voyager 2 in 1977 as part of  Nasa's  mission to explore Jupiter and Saturn.

Initially, the mission was only meant to last five years, however, the instruments have endured in deep space for nearly 46 years.

And since their launch, the probes have traveled a remarkable 14.46 billion miles from Earth – further than any man-made object.

Voyager 1 has been used to study the conditions on Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Meanwhile, Voyager 2 was the first human-made object to fly past Uranus.

In 2022, Nasa announced that the Voyager program was ending as the two spacecraft began entering their final phases.

Read More on The US Sun

Haunting photos show major US city shopping district looking like a 'wasteland'

The Valley's Kristen Doute is 'still trying' for a baby after miscarriage

By 2025, both vehicles, which run via radioisotope thermoelectric generators, are expected to run out of power.

In the meantime, Nasa has been eliminating features to keep the machines operating until then.