Voyager 1 Resumes Sending Usable Data After Months of Malfunction: NASA’s Most Distant Spacecraft Reports on Engineering and Scientific Findings

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft, the most distant man-made object in the universe, has finally started transmitting usable information back to Earth after months of sending gibberish. The US space agency made this announcement on Monday. Despite not sending understandable data back to Earth since November 14, 2023, controllers were able to confirm that the spacecraft was still receiving their commands.

In March, a team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory discovered that a single malfunctioning chip was responsible for the communication issues. They then developed a clever coding fix that worked within the limitations of the probe’s 46-year-old computer system. Now, the agency has stated that the spacecraft is providing valuable data on the health and status of its engineering systems, with plans to resume sending scientific data soon.

Voyager 1 was launched in 1977 and held the distinction of being the first spacecraft from Earth to enter the interstellar medium in 2012. Currently located more than 15 billion miles away from our planet, it takes approximately 22.5 hours for messages to reach the probe from Earth. Its twin spacecraft, Voyager 2, also exited the solar system in 2018.

Both Voyager probes carry “Golden Records,” which are 12-inch, gold-plated copper disks designed to explain the story of Earth to potential extraterrestrial beings. The records include a map of our solar system, a piece of uranium serving as a radioactive clock, and symbolic instructions to play the record. The content was selected by NASA, with input from a committee led by renowned astronomer Carl Sagan, and consists of encoded images, music