An artist concept depicting one of NASA's twin Voyager spacecraft.
NASA’s Voyager 2, approaching the 46th anniversary of its launch to the outer Solar System, is once again transmitting and receiving data following a July 21 loss of communications due to an inadvertent command that prompted the probe to point its antenna away from Earth.
The resumption of communications through NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) follows a “shout” command transmitted by the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory 37 hr. before the science and data flow back to Earth was officially confirmed on Aug. 4 at 12:29 a.m. EDT, according to updates from the mission team.
Voyager 2 launched on Aug. 20, 1977, and its companion Voyager 1 launched Sept. 5, 1977, on missions to explore Jupiter and Saturn and their moons. With their primary missions complete, they now explore beyond the Solar System on different trajectories, with Voyager 2 now more than 12.3 billion mi. (19.9 billion km) from Earth and Voyager 1 almost 15 billion mi.
The Voyager 2 “shout” signal that triggered the restoration of communications followed an Aug. 1 report from the mission team that it was able to detect a “carrier” signal from the probe after the July 21 communications loss. The signal, however, was too faint for the extraction of data.
Up until the success of the “shout,” it appeared that communications between Voyager 2 might not be restored until an Oct. 15 reset. Voyager 2 is programmed to execute periodic resets to correct its orientation and align its antenna with the Earth and the DSN ground stations at Goldstone in California, Madrid, Spain, and Canberra, Australia.
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