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Voyager 1 resumes contact after two-day communication outage

Science · First reported 30 Oct, 09:00 · Updated 09:42

Image: Wikimedia Commons · NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Adam Voiland. · Public domain

Voyager 1 missed planned check-ins on October 18 and 19, then signaled back on October 20. NASA engineers are investigating the cause; they found that one thruster set shut down and a backup set took over.

  • The Deep Space Network did not receive Voyager 1’s planned check-ins on October 18 or 19; the spacecraft signaled back on October 20.
  • Engineers do not know what caused the outage. They found that one thruster set shut down and a backup set took over automatically.
  • The Register’s supplied snippet characterizes Voyager 1 as giving controllers the “silent treatment” and includes the line “Whew! Only kidding, here I am.”
Summary written by Lux AI from 2 articles

Key facts

Missed check-ins
October 18 and 19
Contact resumed
October 20
Known technical response
A backup thruster set took over after the active set shut down
Cause
Not yet known to engineers
Expected milestone
One light-day from Earth on November 18

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