Voyager 2 resumed communications with Earth after remaining silent for two weeks. At 12:29 a.m. EDT on Aug. 4, the spacecraft began returning science and telemetry data, indicating it is operating normally and remains on its expected trajectory, stated NASA.
The Deep Space Network facility in Canberra, Australia, sent an interstellar “shout” to Voyager 2, commanding it to reorient itself and turn its antenna back to Earth. With a one-way light time of 18.5 hours for the command to reach Voyager, mission controllers had to wait 37 hours to find out if the command worked.
The probe lost communication with the agency on July 21 due to an inadvertent antenna misalignment. This caused the spacecraft to be unable to receive commands or transmit data back to Earth.
On Aug. 1, 2023, NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) was able to detect a carrier signal from Voyager 2 using multiple antennas. However, the signal was too faint for data to be extracted, but the detection confirmed that the spacecraft is still operating.
Now, NASA has officially stated that the agency has reestablished full communications with Voyager 2.
Voyager 2 is more than 12.3 billion miles (19.9 billion kilometers) from Earth. It studies the outer planets and interstellar space beyond the Sun’s heliosphere.
Voyager 1, the twin of Voyager 2, which is almost 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth, continues to operate normally.