Voyager 1 is a space probe launched by NASA on September 5, 1977, as part of the Voyager program to study the outer Solar System and interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere. It was launched 16 days after its twin Voyager 2. It communicates through the NASA Deep Space Network to receive routine commands and to transmit data to Earth. At a distance of 162 AU (24 billion km; 15 billion mi) from Earth as of November 2023, it is the most distant human-made object from Earth. Continue reading

Voyager 1 Is Returning a Mishmash of 1s And 0s From Space and NASA Is Baffled   Science Alert - December 14, 2023

Scientists at NASA are desperately trying to fix the glitch from 24 billion kilometers (15 billion miles) away. This isn't the first time that Voyager 1 has sent back random readouts. In 2022, the probe started returning some of its data through a broken computer onboard, corrupting the outgoing messages.

Engineers at NASA managed to figure the problem out and fix it. But it took several months. In this case, the glitch is coming from a disruption in communication between one of three computers onboard, called the probe's flight data system (FDS), and one of the probe's subsystems: the telemetry modulation unit (TMU).

This means that no science data about interstellar space is returning to Earth. What's more, engineering data describing the health and status of the probe is also a jumbled mess. A team at NASA are now pouring through decades old documents on how the probe and its computers work - extremely outdated technology that has been all but forgotten.

Voyager: Inside the world's greatest space mission   BBC - July 4, 2022

In 1977, two spacecraft started a mission that has redefined our knowledge of the Solar System - and will soon become our ambassadors on a journey into the unknown. BBC Future looks at their legacy, 40 years after launch.