In mid-October 2024, NASA lost contact with the Voyager 1 interstellar probe. Due to the distance to the spacecraft, which is already more than 24 billion kilometers, and the corresponding signal delay, scientists learned about it only two days later. Now the communication with the spacecraft has been restored, and the Voyager 1 computer used a decimeter-wave transmitter that had not been turned on since 1981!

Here’s what happened. On October 16, 2024, the control center sent a command to Voyager 1 to turn on the heater of the protected volume of the spacecraft, but this command caused a system failure. Engineers on Earth found out about this only on October 18, when they did not receive confirmation of the command from the spacecraft.

Typically, Voyager 1 uses a centimeter transmitter and the mission team assumed that it would switch to a less energy-intensive transmission mode and eventually NASA’s Deep Space Communications Network heard the device… but on October 19, 2024, the signal disappeared completely.

NASA engineers assumed that there had been a repeated failure and Voyager 1 had switched to an additional decimeter-wave communication channel that required even less power. But this transmitter hadn’t been used since 1981, and NASA experts weren’t sure they could pick up such a weak signal at that distance. But the Long-Range Space Communications Network did it!

To avoid causing another failure, the Voyager 1 ground team is using the still weak and slow decimeter transmitter and is looking for a solution to bring the space traveler back to consciousness.

We remind you that Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 have been in deep space for 47 years, and their equipment was not designed for such a long operation, but it continues to work, albeit partially. This is a real technical miracle.

Voyager 1 has long since left the Solar System. The distance to the spacecraft will soon reach 23 light hours, meaning that the communication lag is almost two days. The spacecraft’s radioisotope thermoelectric generator continues to degrade, producing 4 watts less every year, but theoretically it will be able to keep Voyager 1 alive until 2030. Of course, if the computer, which has been working in extreme conditions all this time, doesn’t give up sooner.

23 light hours, just imagine! Hold on Voyager!