NASA reestablishes contact with 49-year-old Voyager 1 after 48-hour silence
NASA got back in touch with Voyager 1 after a 48-hour silence in deep space.
To keep the 49-year-old spacecraft running, engineers kicked off an operation called "Big Bang," swapping out some power-hungry parts for low-energy ones so Voyager can keep exploring even as its power supply fades.
Voyager 1 still sending interstellar data
Voyager 1, launched way back in 1977, loses about 4W of power every year and has had to shut down nonessential systems to save energy.
Its recent radio blackout happened when backup thrusters kicked in to steady the craft after a fault was detected.
Even with these hiccups, Voyager is still speeding beyond our solar system, set to reach 25.89 billion kilometers (16.09 billion miles) from Earth on November 18, 2026, and keeps sending us valuable data from interstellar space.