Los Angeles, California – NASA successfully reestablished communication with Voyager 1, the farthest human-made object in space, after months of silence. The spacecraft, located more than 15 billion miles away from Earth, had stopped sending usable data back to the space agency on November 14, 2023. Despite the communication issue, mission controllers could still see that Voyager 1 was receiving commands and functioning as intended.
The engineering team in Southern California responsible for Voyager 1 discovered that the problem was linked to the spacecraft’s Flight Data Subsystem (FDS), one of its three onboard computers. Specifically, engineers found that a faulty memory chip in the FDS package was responsible for rendering the code unusable.
In a unique situation due to Voyager 1’s location in interstellar space, engineers had to devise a plan to relocate the affected code within the FDS memory. Given the size of the code, it had to be divided into sections and distributed to various locations in the memory to ensure proper functioning when moved.
After successfully reconfiguring the code, engineers transmitted the changes to the FDS memory on April 18. The signal, traveling through space for approximately 22.5 hours each way, confirmed the modifications worked when the mission team received a response from Voyager 1 on April 20.
Moving forward, the engineering team plans to address other portions of the FDS software affected by the issue. This includes segments responsible for sending scientific data back to mission control, allowing for continued monitoring of Voyager 1’s health and status.
Voyager 1’s journey began in 1977 alongside its twin, Voyager 2, on a mission to explore the gas giant planets of the solar system. While Voyager 2 toured Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, Voyager 1 utilized Saturn’s gravity to propel itself past Pluto, embarking on a remarkable odyssey through the cosmos.