NASA has resolved the tension that persisted for several months with the American space agency. Its Voyager 1 spacecraft has resumed normal operations. Voyager 1, the most distant human-made object in space beyond Earth, is now transmitting important information back to Earth after encountering several months of problems, as announced by NASA on Monday.
Hi, it's me. – V1 https://t.co/jgGFBfxIOe
— NASA Voyager (@NASAVoyager) April 22, 2024
It’s worth noting that Voyager 1 had ceased sending readable data to Earth in November of last year. Despite receiving instructions, the spacecraft was unable to transmit the necessary data back. The investigation was handed over to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where teams identified a malfunctioning chip causing the issue.
Scientists developed a code that successfully addressed Voyager 1’s technical flaw. Now, scientists have confirmed that Voyager 1 is once again relaying information about its engineering systems and health status to scientists on Earth.
To celebrate this achievement, scientists shared a message via NASA Voyager’s Twitter handle, writing, “Hi, it’s me. – V1.” The next objective for scientists is to enhance the spacecraft’s capabilities to begin transmitting science data.
The Voyager spacecraft was launched in 1977 and is currently situated 15 billion miles away from Earth. When a message is sent from Earth to Voyager 1, it takes approximately 22.5 hours to reach the spacecraft. Inspired by the success of Voyager 1, scientists launched Voyager 2 in 2018. Both spacecraft carry “Golden Records” – 12-inch gold-plated copper discs intended to convey the story of Earth to extraterrestrials. Voyager 1 and 2’s primary mission is to study the systems of Jupiter and Saturn, with potential future missions to explore the outer solar system.