NASA just sent a message to the decades-old Voyager 2 spacecraft – and got an answer

[Mike Wehner]

• NASA fired off a message to Voyager 2, which is currently traveling in interstellar space, and the decades-old spacecraft responded.
• Voyager 2 was launched back in the late 1970s and has remained in communication with its handlers back on Earth ever since.
• The dish that sent the message is currently being worked on and will finally have its repairs and upgrades completed in February 2021.

When NASA sends a spacecraft skyward it usually has a relatively short lifespan, all things considered. Maybe a few years, or perhaps even a decade or even two, in special cases. NASA's Voyager spacecraft twins, on the other hand, have really proven themselves to be incredibly rugged.

Voyager 2, which is over 43 years old at this point, has been traveling out of our solar system since it launched in the late 1970s. NASA occasionally checked in with the spacecraft to get data from the few instruments that are still functional, but that all came to a stop in March of this year. That's when the only radio antenna capable of reaching the spacecraft went offline for a series of repairs and upgrades. Now, in a brief test of some new equipment being installed on the dish, NASA fired off a signal to Voyager 2, and despite being quiet for several months and, you know, cruising through deep space outside of our system, the spacecraft replied loud and clear.

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NASA just sent a message to the decades-old Voyager 2 spacecraft – and got an answer originally appeared on BGR.com on Wed, 4 Nov 2020 at 22:24:29 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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