Voyager 1 "back in action" after NASA fixes glitch 15 billion miles away
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A NASA image of the Voyager 1 space probe, launched in 1977 to study the outer solar system and interstellar space. Photo: NASA
NASA's Voyager 1 is back "conducting normal science operations" for the first time since a technical glitch some seven months ago sidelined the spacecraft, space agency officials announced.
Why it matters: The spacecraft that launched in 1977 has collected key scientific data, and at more than 15 billion miles from Earth it's the farthest human-made object in space.
- Per a NASA statement announcing the fix, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 (which launched the same year) "are the only spacecraft to directly sample interstellar space, which is the region outside the heliosphere — the protective bubble of magnetic fields and solar wind created by the Sun."
- The twin probes explored the outer planets of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune before starting their voyages toward interstellar space.
Driving the news: NASA announced last year that Voyager 1 was experiencing problems with its flight data system.
- "The spacecraft is receiving and executing commands sent from Earth but not returning useable data," per a post to X by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages many of NASA's robotic missions after the issue emerged in November.
The big picture: NASA said in April that the mission team had partially resolved the issue by prompting the spacecraft to begin returning engineering data that included information about the health and status of the spacecraft.
- They completed the next step of the repair process last month when they beamed a command to the spacecraft to begin resuming science data and two of the four science instruments returned to their normal operating modes.
- "Two other instruments required some additional work, but now, all four are returning usable science data," according to NASA's statement last week.
What we're watching: "While Voyager 1 is back to conducting science, additional minor work is needed to clean up the effects of the issue," NASA said.
- "Among other tasks, engineers will resynchronize timekeeping software in the spacecraft's three onboard computers so they can execute commands at the right time.
- "The team will also perform maintenance on the digital tape recorder, which records some data for the plasma wave instrument that is sent to Earth twice per year."
Go deeper: Voyager 2's journey in interstellar space
