NASA’s Voyager-1 Resumes Sending Data From 24 Billion KMs Away After Months of Technical Issues

NASA’s Voyager 1 probe, the farthest human-made object in space, has resumed transmitting valuable data to ground control after months of technical issues, the US space agency revealed on Monday.

After halting readable data transmission on November 14, 2023, engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory identified a faulty chip as the culprit in March. They developed a creative coding solution to rectify the problem within the probe’s limited 46-year-old computer system.

According to NASA, Voyager 1 is now providing crucial information about its engineering systems’ health and status, with plans to resume sending scientific data soon.

Hi, it's me. – V1 https://t.co/jgGFBfxIOe

— NASA Voyager (@NASAVoyager) April 22, 2024

Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 became the first spacecraft to reach the interstellar medium in 2012 and currently resides over 15 billion miles away from Earth. Communications with the probe experience a delay of approximately 22.5 hours.

Its counterpart, Voyager 2, also departed the solar system in 2018. Both crafts carry Golden Records, containing a snapshot of Earth’s story for potential extraterrestrial discovery. Crafted with input from renowned astronomer Carl Sagan, these records include images, music, and instructions for playback.

With their power banks projected to exhaust around 2025, the Voyager spacecraft may journey indefinitely through the Milky Way, broadcasting a silent message to the cosmos.