NASA Officials Still Optimistic After Losing Contact With Voyager 2

After accidentally cutting communication with the Voyager 2 spacecraft in July, NASA officials remain optimistic the craft will soon return contact. Over the weekend, those on the Voyager 2 mission used the global Deep Space Network (DSN) to detect a “heartbeat” from the decades-old craft, meaning it’s still fully functional and operating, NASA just has to reconnect with it.

“A series of planned commands sent to NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft July 21 inadvertently caused the antenna to point 2 degrees away from Earth. As a result, Voyager 2 is currently unable to receive commands or transmit data back to Earth,” a statement from NASA reads.

It’s believe dVoyager 2 will be able to communicate and return data to NASA by the end of the year because of automatic programming aboard the craft.

“Voyager 2 is programmed to reset its orientation multiple times each year to keep its antenna pointing at Earth; the next reset will occur on Oct. 15, which should enable communication to resume,” NASA’s statement adds. “The mission team expects Voyager 2 to remain on its planned trajectory during the quiet period.”

Even though it was only expected to last 12 years, Voyager 2 is currently approaching its 46th anniversary in the furthest corners of space. Just over five years ago, the craft even left the part of space included in our solar system, officially making it an interstellar craft in a neighboring star system.

Voyager 2 is roughly 12.3 billion miles from Earth, just under its sibling craft Voyager 1, which is approximately 15 billion miles from the planet.

“[Glitches] happen from time to time,” Glen Nagle, Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex outreach manager, said in a new chat with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “It’s always interesting when you have a spacecraft which is coming up to its 46th anniversary in a space mission only designed to last 12 years… It is aging and getting farther away from us every single day. We do know we’ll lose contact with the spacecraft sometime toward the end of this decade.”

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