NASA's Voyager 1 resumes transmission after unexplained 2-day silence
Technology
NASA's Voyager 1, the most distant object humans have ever sent into space, suddenly stopped talking to Earth for two days while drifting 16 billion miles away.
Out of the blue, its signal came back on October 20, leaving NASA engineers both relieved and puzzled as they work to figure out what happened.
Voyager 1 thruster glitch triggered backup
During the blackout, a thruster glitch triggered Voyager's backup system to take over and stabilize things.
It's not clear if this caused the communication gap, but it shows just how tough this old spacecraft is.
Even with its power slowly running out after more than 49 years in space, Voyager 1 is still sending back data from interstellar space, a true icon of human curiosity and determination.