By: Ray Wu

I n 1977, NASA deployed two spacecraft, Voyager 1, and Voyager 2, to study the outer solar system up close. Both are still “hurtling through space” and shattering records, but there was a recent scare when Voyager 2 lost contact for a span of 2 weeks (The LA Times).

Two weeks ago, an incorrect command sent to Voyager 2 rotated its antenna two degrees away from Earth, killing the signal the scientists had with the spacecraft.

A large and powerful “radio dish antenna in Australia” was used to turn Voyager 2’s antenna back into the right position. It took almost two whole days for the signal to reach the spacecraft and come back.

“I just sort of sighed, I melted in the chair” commented manager of project Suzanne Dodd (The Washington Post).

“We’ve been very clever over the last 10 years to eke out every single little watt. Hopefully, one of them will make it to 50. But they are old and certainly events like this one that just happened scare the dickens out of me, as far as making that type of a milestone”, remarks Dodd later (The Washington Post).

Dodd won’t let a 50-year milestone fail after all the hard work the previous generation put in. This took a lot of work, but it was totally worth it. After this whole mess, Voyager 2 has reinstated to its comfortable and happy connection.