NASA is reporting on their Voyager Twitter feed that the Voyager 2 spacecraft is once again operational.
Here's the skinny: My twin went to do a roll to calibrate the onboard magnetometer, overdrew power and tripped software designed to automatically protect the spacecraft.
Voyager 2's power state is good and instruments are back on. Resuming science soon. https://t.co/4buDM32bap pic.twitter.com/4T856Lpxjm
— NASA Voyager (@NASAVoyager) January 29, 2020
Good vibes! Voyager 2 continues to be stable, and communications between Earth and the spacecraft are fine.
My twin is back to taking science data, and the team at @NASAJPL is evaluating the health of the instruments following their brief shutoff. https://t.co/LmsWQ7wPat pic.twitter.com/xyhM1G8sTD
— NASA Voyager (@NASAVoyager) February 6, 2020
Kind of astonishing that 70s space tech that is 11.5 billion miles away from home is still talking to us. The Voyager 2 ran into trouble in late January and became unresponsive.
Read more on JPL’s website.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech