NASA finally makes contact with Voyager 2 after longest radio silence in 30 years

[Judi Lynn]

By Peter Dockrill - ScienceAlert 20 hours ago



Here, an illustration of the interstellar spacecraft Voyager 2.
(Image: © NASA/JPL-Caltech)

There's never been a radio silence quite like this one. After long months with no way of making contact with Voyager 2, NASA has finally reestablished communications with the record-setting interstellar spacecraft.

The breakdown in communications – lasting since March, almost eight months and a whole pandemic ago – wasn't due to some rogue malfunction, nor any run-in with interstellar space weirdness (although there's that too).

In this instance, it was more a case of routine maintenance. And yet, when you're one of the farthest-flying spacecraft in history – leaving Earth and even the entire solar system behind you – nothing much is ever truly routine.

In March, NASA announced that Deep Space Station 43 (DSS-43) in Australia, the only antenna on Earth that can send commands to Voyager 2, required critical upgrades and would need to shut down for approximately 11 months for the work to be completed.

More:
https://www.livescience.com/nasa-makes-contact-voyager-2-long-radio-silence.html

[brush]

1. It's in interstellar space, right?

[FBaggins]

2. By our current understanding, yes

A quarter of a millennium or so from now (if it’s still in contact with earth), perhaps it will learn something about the Oort Cloud that causes scientists to redefine the bounds of the sun’s influence and move the boundary for “interstellar”.