Voyager 2, Currently 12.3 Billion Miles Distant, Loses Contact With NASA

This artist’s impression illustrates NASA’s Voyager spacecraft sailing through the starry expanse of space. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Due to an unintentional change in the direction of its antenna, NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft has lost its communication link with Earth. The scheduled reorientation on October 15 is anticipated to rectify the situation, while its twin spacecraft, Voyager 1, continues to operate without any disruptions.

An unexpected shift in the antenna direction of NASA’s Voyager 2 happened due to a series of commands sent on July 21. As a result, the antenna deviated 2 degrees from its position towards Earth, causing the spacecraft to lose its ability to transmit data to Earth or receive commands.

Currently situated over 12.3 billion miles (19.9 billion kilometers) from our planet, the spacecraft has experienced an interruption in its link with NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) ground antennas. Because of this misalignment, the spacecraft is failing to send data back to the DSN or receive commands from ground control.

Voyager 2 is designed to reorient itself several times a year to maintain its antenna alignment with Earth. The next orientation adjustment, scheduled for October 15, is expected to restore communication. Despite this setback, the mission team anticipates that Voyager 2 will continue to follow its planned trajectory during this silent phase.

In contrast, Voyager 1 is nearly 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) away from Earth and operates without any disruptions.

An artist’s interpretation features one of NASA’s twin Voyager spacecraft, which are humanity’s most distant and longest-serving spacecraft, celebrating 40 years in August and September 2017. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Launched by NASA in 1977, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are twin spacecraft intended to explore the outer solar system. Despite their age of over four decades, they are still operational and continue to provide valuable scientific data.

Voyager 1 was launched on September 5, 1977, with a mission to perform flybys of Jupiter and Saturn. On its voyage, Voyager 1 delivered detailed imagery and data of these gas giants and their moons, and in 2012, it made history by being the first spacecraft to reach interstellar space, the area beyond our solar system.

Voyager 2, launched on August 20, 1977, is unique in that it is the only spacecraft to have visited all four outer planets — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, revealing significant details about these planets and their moons.

Both spacecraft carry a “Golden Record,” a phonograph record containing sounds and images representing Earth’s life and culture diversity, intended to convey the story of our world to any extraterrestrial intelligence that may discover them.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, built and operates the Voyager spacecraft. The Voyager missions are part of the NASA Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

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