2023-08-04 20:39:28
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Commands sent on July 21 had mistakenly pointed the ship’s antenna in the wrong direction, away from Earth, interrupting data communication.
Published on 04/08/2023 22:39
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An illustration representing the Voyager 2 probe and the planet Saturn, taken on November 13, 2018. (MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRA / MGA / AFP)
NASA is once once more receiving scientific data from Voyager 2. The American space agency announced on Friday August 4 that it had fully restored communications with its legendary probe, following inadvertently interrupting them on July 21. Erroneous commands had then caused the ship’s antenna to point in the wrong direction, away from Earth, interrupting data communication. To restore communication, NASA sent Voyager 2 the“equivalent to an interstellar cry”,“ordering the probe to reorient itself and return its antenna to Earth”, the agency explained in a statement.
Given how far Voyager 2 is, currently some 19.9 billion kilometers from Earth, it took the command just over 18 hours to reach it, and it took the same amount of time to reach it. to be sure of the result. The probe, launched into space in 1977 “operating normally” and stayed well “on its expected trajectory”NASA said.
Voyager 2 left the protective bubble of the Sun, called the heliosphere, in 2018 to enter interstellar space. Its twin Voyager 1, also launched in 1977, became the first craft to enter interstellar space in 2012 and is currently regarding 24 billion kilometers from Earth. The two probes, mythical NASA missions, each carry recordings of sounds and images of the Earth on gold and copper plates.
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