Voyager 1 is conducting science operations for the first time following a technical issue that arose in November 2023.
Voyager 1 launched from Florida’s NASA Kennedy Space Center on September 5, 1977, 16 days after its twin, Voyager 2. This artist concept depicts one of NASA’s twin Voyager spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.
Voyager 1 stopped sending readable science and engineering data back to Earth on November 14, 2023, even though the mission controllers could tell the spacecraft was still receiving their commands and otherwise operating normally.
They partially resolved the issue in April, 2024 when they prompted Voyager 1 to begin returning engineering data, which includes information about the health and status of the spacecraft.
On May 19, they executed the second step of that repair process and beamed a command to the spacecraft to begin returning science data.
Two of the four science instruments returned to their normal operating modes immediately.
Two other instruments required some additional work, but now, all four are returning usable science data.
The four instruments study plasma waves, magnetic fields, and particles.
This infographic highlights NASA’s Voyager mission’s major milestones, including visiting the four outer planets and exiting the heliosphere, or the protective bubble of magnetic fields and particles created by the Sun. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.
The twin Voyager probes are NASA’s longest-operating mission and the only spacecraft ever to explore interstellar space.
Launched in 1977, both probes traveled to Jupiter and Saturn, with Voyager 1 moving faster and reaching them first.
Together, they unveiled much about the Solar System’s two largest planets and their moons.
Voyager 1 is more than 24 billion km (15 billion miles) from Earth, and Voyager 2 is more than 20 billion km (12 billion miles) from the planet.
The probes will mark 47 years of operations later this year.
“Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are the only spacecraft to directly sample interstellar space, which is the region outside the heliosphere — the protective bubble of magnetic fields and solar wind created by the Sun,” the NASA engineers said.
“While Voyager 1 is back to conducting science, additional minor work is needed to clean up the effects of the issue.”
“Among other tasks, we will resynchronize timekeeping software in the spacecraft’s three onboard computers so they can execute commands at the right time.”
“We will also perform maintenance on the digital tape recorder, which records some data for the plasma wave instrument that is sent to Earth twice per year.”
