![Image of the Voyager 2 spacecraft.](https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pia21839-main-800x450.jpg)
About per week ago, operators of the Voyager 2 spacecraft sent a series of commands that inadvertently caused the distant probe to point its antenna barely away from Earth. In consequence, NASA has lost contact with the spacecraft, which is almost half a century old and presently 19.9 billion km away from the planet.
In the meanwhile, NASA and the mission’s scientists aren’t panicking. In an update posted Friday, the space agency said Voyager 2 is programmed to reset its orientation several times a 12 months to maintain its antenna pointing at Earth. It’s scheduled to achieve this again on October 15, which should allow communication to resume. Within the meantime, NASA said it doesn’t anticipate the spacecraft veering off target.
Launched individually in 1977 on two different rockets, the Voyager 1 and a pair of spacecraft have been true trailblazers for NASA and the world. Never before had a spacecraft visited 4 worlds in a single, grand tour because the two Voyager probes did within the Nineteen Seventies and Nineteen Eighties with Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
Prior to the launch of the Voyagers, humans had been gazing at fuzzy blobs within the outer Solar System for tons of of years. Pioneer 10 and 11 provided some higher views of Jupiter and Saturn, but still, little or no was known in regards to the planets or their moons. Next to nothing was known of Uranus and Neptune. The Voyagers uncovered complex planetary systems and incredible moons, resembling volcano-covered Io, icy Europa, and Titan with its methane seas.
And of their old age, the 2 probes have kept on exploring. Voyager 1, at a distance of 24 billion km from Earth, and Voyager 2 have each left the Solar System, exploring the barren but scientifically interesting interstellar medium. And until now, they’ve been faithfully phoning home.