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Update 8/2/23: NASA has detected a "heartbeat", but communication has not yet been restored.
NASA's Voyager 2 is currently beyond the edge of the Solar System, the second furthest object humanity has ever sent into the cosmos. However, due to a software update that inadvertently pointed its antenna away from Earth, it's no longer in touch with mission control, hopefully just temporarily.
Voyager 2 is now almost 20 billion kilometers (12 billion miles) from Earth. On July 21, a series of planned commands were sent to the spacecraft, which take about 18.5 hours to get there. The commands inadvertently moved the spacecraft so its antenna moved 2 degrees off from where it usually points. This might seem like a small error but as it is no longer pointing at Earth, we can't communicate with it while it is hurtling ever deeper into interstellar space.
Following on from NASA briefly losing contact with the International Space Station last week for the first time in 24 years, Voyager 2 can't currently receive commands or transmit data back to the ground antennas of NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN). Although it's a long shot, NASA has instructed a huge dish antenna in Canberra, Australia – part of the DSN – to try searching for any signals of Voyager and bombard it with the correct commands in the hope it hits the mark.
Luckily this is not the end. The spacecraft is designed to reset its orientation multiple times a year, to make sure the antenna is pointing at Earth. The next reset is planned for October 15. Afterward, communications are expected to resume.
This is not the first we have gone months without talking to Voyager-2. In 2020, the Deep Space Station 43 – the only one that is used to communicate with the craft – was undergoing repairs so NASA was not able to communicate with it for eight months.
Let’s hope that this is also just a see you later, rather than goodbye!
