2023-08-04 21:56:54
NASA has regained contact with Voyager 2, the space probe located 19.9 billion kilometers from Earth. Contact with the Voyager 2 launched in 1977 was briefly lost due to a mistake by flight control.
Contact was accidentally lost last month when flight control gave the wrong order. As a result, the spacecraft turned away from Earth.
Flight controllers managed to direct the probe to point to Earth. NASA received the correct measurements back on Friday, the space organization said.
It took a while before it was clear that the problem was solved. The mission from NASA was on the road for 18.5 hours. The signals that Voyager 2 sent back took another 18.5 hours.
Krijg een melding bij nieuws over heelal en ruimtevaart
The flight control had already received a sign of life earlier this week. Cell towers picked up a faint signal, enough to give reassurance that Voyager 2 was still working.
If this solution had not worked, flight control would have had to wait until October. Then Voyager would automatically orient itself and point its antennas back toward Earth.
Voyager 2 flies unrestrained
Voyager 2 was launched in August 1977. At the end of 2018, it left our solar system and reached the endless space between the stars, the so-called interstellar medium. It flies unrestrained, with a speed of more than 55,000 kilometers per hour. In about 300,000 years, Voyager 2 will come close to Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, but then it will no longer be visible.
Voyager 2’s twin brother, Voyager 1, is even further away. It is located about 24 billion kilometers from Earth. That sin still works. Voyager 1 left our solar system in 2012, becoming the first human-made object ever.
1691187308
#NASA #contact #45yearold #space #probe #Voyager #mistake #Tech