NASA receives signal from Voyager 1, the furthest space probe from Earth, after months of silence

NASA finally received a serial signal from Voyager 1 again.

The space probe farthest from Earth has stopped sending meaningful data since November last year. Flight controllers determined that the communication failure was due to a malfunctioning cybernetic chip and reorganized the ship’s code to correct the problem.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California declared the procedure a success after receiving relevant technical updates last week. The team continues to work to restore transmission of scientific data.

The signal takes 22 and a half hours to reach Voyager 1, which is more than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) away in interstellar space. The signal travel time is twice as long for a round trip message.

Contact was never lost, and it was like making a phone call when you can’t hear the person on the other end of the line, a JPL spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Launched in 1977 to study Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager 1 has been exploring interstellar space, the space between star systems, since 2012. Its twin, Voyager 2, is 20 billion kilometers (12.6 million miles) away and is still operating normally.

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