NASA's Voyager 1, our intrepid interstellar traveller, has recently made a triumphant return. This spacecraft came back online after facing several months of technical difficulties. The spacecraft, which is 46 years old, encountered these issues in November 2023. After five months of silence, we are pleased to announce that the spacecraft is now active and operating well.
Voyager 1 has managed to transmit the data which is in the form of binary code, from dark space to Earth with all four of its science instruments in good condition. In March, the Voyager engineering team revealed this issue at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
The spacecraft is currently situated at least 24.14 billion km away from Earth. Despite the challenges faced by the spacecraft in interstellar space, the Voyager 1 team did outstanding work in persevering in their efforts to diagnose its issues.
They managed to pinpoint the issue with the flight data subsystem (FDS). Remarkably, the 46-year-old spacecraft has once again managed to share valuable data with Earth.
Voyager 1 first transmitted data on April 20, 2024, after becoming operational again, but only two of its four science instruments were functioning at that time. Now, two months later, the remaining two science instruments are back up and running, communicating effectively with mission control on Earth.
Despite the success in recovering Voyager 1, NASA has estimated that the spacecraft's nuclear-powered generators might expire around 2025. Voyager 1, launched on September 5, 1977, has been a monumental achievement in space exploration, sending back invaluable data from the outer reaches of our solar system and beyond.
In the astonishing 24 billion km journey of the spacecraft from Earth, scientists have estimated that this true space veteran will continue transmitting data for several more years.
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