The Morning After: Voyager 2 is alive!

NASA has only one of two human-made objects to leave the solar system. The agency lost touch with the probe on July 21st after a series of planned maneuvers pointed it two degrees away from Earth. It would have reset its orientation in October, but agency officials didn’t want to wait that long to get back in touch.

The Voyager 2 team used a network of ground-based transmitters to “shout” a command to the probe, telling it to turn back toward Earth. This bellowed order took 18.5 hours to reach the apparatus, and it would take just as long before NASA would learn it was successful. It’s a testament to human ingenuity, but also a vital reminder to not miss a second of data coming from Voyager 2 since NASA believes it may not function properly after 2025.

— Dan Cooper

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