NASA reestablishes full contact with Voyager 2 probe after nail-biting 2-week blackout

News
By last updated

After accidentally shifting Voyager 2's antenna by two degrees, NASA fell out of contact with the interstellar probe on July 21. On Aug. 4, the agency succesfully reset the probe's antenna, restoring communications.

An illustration of the small Voyager probe drifting away from the bright glare of our sun
Voyager 2 has been drifting in interstellar space since Nov 2018. (Image credit: NASA/ JLP)

UPDATE: On Aug. 4, NASA confirmed that the agency has reestablished full communications with the Voyager 2 probe, after a nail-biting two weeks of radio darkness. 

After detecting a "heartbeat" signal from the probe on Aug.1, scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) sent a "shout" to the probe in an attempt to manually realign its antenna toward Earth. After roughly 37 hours — 18.5 hours for NASA's signal to reach the probe at its interstellar frontier, and another 18 .5 hours for Voyager 2 to respond — "the spacecraft began returning science and telemetry data, indicating it is operating normally and that it remains on its expected trajectory," JPL said in the statement. 

NASA has temporarily lost contact with the Voyager 2 probe — the second-farthest human made object from Earth in the universe, currently sailing through interstellar space roughly 12.3 billion miles (19.9 billion kilometers) from home.

Luckily, the radio blackout should be temporary, NASA said. Voyager 2 is programmed to reset its antenna's alignment several times each year to stay in contact with Earth as it drifts ever farther away. The next reset is scheduled for Oct. 15, at which point communication with Voyager 2 should resume.

Both Yoyagers have enough electircal power and fuel to continue their current operations until at least 2025, according to NASA. But whenthe day comes that both probes inevitably cease communications with Earth forever, their mission to the stars will still continue. Stored aboard both probes are twin copies of a gold-plated copper disk, known as the Voyager Golden Record — a sort of audio postcard designed to share Earth's natural and musical heritage with any intelligent aliens that may one day chance upon the probes. The records each contain 27 pieces of music, including Bach and Chuck Berry, 22 minutes of nature sounds and voices speaking in 59 human languages. 

The probes also contain an audio player with pictorial instructions, and a star map showing the location of Earth. Whether anyone finds them is a question for another millennium. 

This article, originally published on  Aug. 1, was updated on Aug. 8 after NASA successfully reestablished communication with the Voyager 2 probe.

Brandon Specktor
Brandon Specktor
Editor

Brandon is the space / physics editor at Live Science. With more than 20 years of editorial experience, his writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Reader's Digest, CBS.com, the Richard Dawkins Foundation website and other outlets. He holds a bachelor's degree in creative writing from the University of Arizona, with minors in journalism and media arts. His interests include black holes, asteroids and comets, and the search for extraterrestrial life.