After experiencing a technical issue in November 2023, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is now back to conducting normal science operations. The team was able to partially resolve the issue in April by prompting the spacecraft to return engineering data, which provides information about its health and status.
On May 19, the mission team successfully executed the second step of the repair process by sending a command to the spacecraft to begin returning science data. While two of the four science instruments immediately returned to their normal operating modes, the other two required some additional work. However, all four instruments are now returning usable science data.
These instruments on Voyager 1 study plasma waves, magnetic fields, and particles. Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are the only spacecraft that have directly sampled interstellar space, which is the region beyond the heliosphere – the protective bubble of magnetic fields and solar wind created by the Sun.