NASA loses contact with Voyager 2 probe

NASA lost contact with its Voyager 2 probe and potentially may not hear from it until October. Voyager 2 is located 12.4 billion miles from the Earth and is no longer able to receive commands or send data, CBS News reported. This is because a "series of planned commands" sent to the probe "inadvertently caused the antenna to point 2 degrees away from Earth," according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

NASA's Deep Space Network has picked up a heartbeat signal from the probe indicating that Voyager 2 is alive and well, per The Associated Press. The probe is set to reorient itself on October 15, which it is programmed to do multiple times a year to keep the antenna pointed at Earth. However, "that is a long time to wait, so we'll try sending up commands several times" before then, JPL project manager Suzanne Dodd told AP.

Voyager 2 was launched in 1977 along with Voyager 1 and became the first human-made probe to travel past Uranus in 2018. It is currently traversing interstellar space, or the space between stars, BBC wrote. Voyager 1 is being used to study Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, and is still in contact with NASA.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up