NASA Hears Sign From Voyager 2 Spacecraft After Mistakenly Slicing Contact

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — After days of silence, NASA has heard from Voyager 2 in interstellar area billions of miles away.

Flight controllers by accident despatched a flawed command almost two weeks in the past that tilted the spacecraft’s antenna away from Earth and severed contact.

NASA’s Deep Space Network, big radio antennas throughout the globe, picked up a “heartbeat sign,” that means the 46-year-old craft is alive and working, mission supervisor Suzanne Dodd stated in an e-mail Tuesday.

The information “buoyed our spirits,” Dodd stated. Flight controllers on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California will now attempt to flip Voyager 2’s antenna again towards Earth.

If the command doesn’t work — and controllers doubt it is going to — they’ll have to attend till October for an automated spacecraft reset. The antenna is just 2% off-kilter.

“That’s a very long time to attend, so we’ll strive sending up instructions a number of instances” earlier than then, Dodd stated.

Voyager 2 rocketed into area in 1977, together with its equivalent twin Voyager 1, on a quest to discover the outer planets.

Nonetheless speaking and dealing advantageous, Voyager 1 is now 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth, making it essentially the most distant spacecraft.

Voyager 2 trails its twin in interstellar area at greater than 12 billion miles (19 billion kilometers) from Earth. At that distance, it takes greater than 18 hours for a sign to journey a method.

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