NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft, launched in 1977 and currently located 15 billion miles away in interstellar space, has reestablished communication with Earth using a radio transmitter that has been dormant since 1981. The 47-year-old spacecraft experienced a brief communication blackout after a technical issue triggered its fault protection system, which autonomously responds to onboard issues by conserving power and shutting off non-essential systems.
The issue arose when a command was sent from NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) on October 16 to turn on one of the spacecraft’s heaters. The command triggered the fault protection system, and the DSN was unable to detect Voyager 1’s signal on October 18. The spacecraft typically communicates with Earth using an X-band radio transmitter, but the fault protection system lowered the rate at which the transmitter was sending back data, changing the signal that the DSN needed to listen for.
On October 19, communication with Voyager 1 appeared to stop entirely. The fault protection system is believed to have been triggered twice more, causing the spacecraft to switch to its secondary S-band radio transmitter, which uses less power and hadn’t been used since 1981. Despite the S-band’s fainter signal, engineers with the DSN were able to locate it.
The team is now working to gather information to understand what happened and return Voyager 1 to normal operations. This could take weeks, as they want to ensure there are no potential risks to turning on the X-band transmitter again. In the meantime, the S-band transmitter allows the team to send commands and ensure the spacecraft is still pointed at Earth.
Despite its advanced age and the increasing complexity of technical issues, Voyager 1 continues to return vital data from beyond the solar system. The spacecraft, which crossed the boundary of our solar system in 2012, is the first to operate in interstellar space.
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