VOYAGER 2 FULL COMMUNICATIONS RESTORED AFTER INTERSTELLAR SHOUT FROM NASA DSN
NASA has reestablished full communications with Voyager 2 after a series of planned commands sent to NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft on July 21 inadvertently caused the antenna to point 2 degrees away from Earth.
2 minute read•Updated 3:20 PM EDT, Sat March 30, 2024
NASA has reestablished full communications with Voyager 2 after a series of planned commands sent to NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft on July 21 inadvertently caused the antenna to point 2 degrees away from Earth.
Using multiple antennas, of NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) mission controllers were able to detect a carrier signal from Voyager 2 days later. 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 many consider it like the spacecrafts heartbeast as with its detection, controllers can confirm that the spacecraft is still operating.
Although mission controllers knew the Voyager 2 would automatically point its antenna at Earth in mid-October, the team worked to send a command Voyager 2 sooner.
Today with much celebration from the scientific community, NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft has received the crucial message from Earth instructing it to reorient itself and realign its antenna towards our planet.
The Deep Space Network facility in Canberra, Australia, transmitted a powerful signal, akin to an interstellar "shout," to Voyager 2, situated over 12.5 billion miles (19.9 billion kilometers) away. The message, which took an astounding 18.5 hours to travel one-way through the vast expanse of space, finally reached Voyager 2 on August 4th at 12:29 a.m. EDT.
After a tense 37-hour wait mission controllers recieved a response from Voyager 2 confirming the command had been successfully executed.
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As a journalist Zac writes about space exploration, technology, and science. He has covered Inspiration-4, Artemis-1, Starship IFT-1, AX-2 on location.