Voyager 2: NASA reaches Voyager 2 with last-ditch ‘shout’

With an interstellar “shout” across the solar system, NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Lab on Friday re-established full communications with Voyager 2, an aging probe launched in 1977, exploring the outer edges of the solar system. “After two weeks of not hearing anything, we’re back to getting unique data from the interstellar medium,” said Linda Spilker, a planetary scientist at the lab. The space agency lost contact with Voyager 2 on July 21 when the mission team accidentally sent a command that pushed the spacecraft’s antenna 2 degrees away from Earth. After detecting a carrier signal known as a “heartbeat” on Tuesday morning, the team sent a command on Wednesday, which reoriented the antenna back to Earth, and by Friday, Voyager 2 began transmitting science data once again. nyt