NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft recently resumed normal science operations after experiencing a technical issue in November 2023. The team worked to resolve the problem by prompting the spacecraft to return engineering data in April. This data provides information on the spacecraft’s health and status. On May 19, the mission team sent a command to Voyager 1 to start returning science data. Two of the four science instruments immediately returned to their normal operating modes, while the other two required additional work to return usable science data.
The instruments onboard Voyager 1 study plasma waves, magnetic fields, and particles. This spacecraft, along with Voyager 2, is the only one to directly sample interstellar space beyond the heliosphere – the protective bubble of magnetic fields and solar wind created by the sun. While Voyager 1 is currently back to conducting science, there is still minor work to be done to address the effects of the technical issue. Engineers will need to synchronize timekeeping software in the spacecraft’s computers and perform maintenance on the digital tape recorder that records data for the plasma wave instrument.
Voyager 1 is located more than 15 billion miles from Earth, while Voyager 2 is over 12 billion miles away. These spacecraft have been in operation for 47 years and are NASA’s longest-running and most distant probes. Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 have flown past Jupiter and Saturn, with Voyager 2 also flying past Uranus and Neptune.