- Oct 17, 2011
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Voyager 1 is currently the farthest spacecraft from Earth at about 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) [nearly one light-day] away, while its twin Voyager 2 has traveled more than 12 billion miles (20 billion kilometers) from our planet.
Initially designed to last five years, the Voyager probes are the two longest-operating spacecraft in history.
The mission team first noticed the issue November 14, when the flight data system’s telecommunications unit began sending back a repeating pattern of ones and zeroes, like it was trapped in a loop.
While the spacecraft can still receive and carry out commands transmitted from the mission team, a problem with that telecommunications unit means no science or engineering data from Voyager 1 is being returned to Earth.
The Voyager team sent commands over the weekend for the spacecraft to restart the flight data system, but no usable data has come back yet, according to NASA.
Initially designed to last five years, the Voyager probes are the two longest-operating spacecraft in history.
The mission team first noticed the issue November 14, when the flight data system’s telecommunications unit began sending back a repeating pattern of ones and zeroes, like it was trapped in a loop.
While the spacecraft can still receive and carry out commands transmitted from the mission team, a problem with that telecommunications unit means no science or engineering data from Voyager 1 is being returned to Earth.
The Voyager team sent commands over the weekend for the spacecraft to restart the flight data system, but no usable data has come back yet, according to NASA.