NASA lost contact with the Voyager 2 probe on July 21 after someone input the wrong command, sending its antenna two degrees away from Earth.
Contact was lost with Voyage 2 while it was 12.3 billion miles away from Earth, NASA said in a statement shared Thursday. A series of commands sent to the probe “inadvertently cause the antenna to point 2 degrees away from Earth.” It is now unable to receive commands or transmit any data back to Earth, and likely won’t be able to until October 15.
The hope is that the orientation of the probe will reset in October, allowing communication to resume. Unless something knocks it off trajectory, Voyager 2 should stay on course while it is out of touch, NASA noted.
You might have heard… Voyager 2 is taking a break from sending data until October. In the meantime, I’m out here, almost 15 billion miles (24 billion km) from Earth and doing fine! – V1
More info from our team: https://t.co/S3BFRo9Va9
— NASA Voyager (@NASAVoyager) July 28, 2023
Voyagers 1 and 2 are the only known man-made objects to have reached and operated outside of our solar system’s heliosphere, the BBC reported. Voyager 2 reached interstellar space in 2018, and is the only spacecraft to have flown by Neptune and Uranus.
The probe has discovered and documented more than 12 new moons since its launch in 1977, CBS News noted. (RELATED: ‘Influx Of People Reporting UFOs Since Congressional Hearing, Navy Pilot Claims)
Voyager 1 is currently 15 billion miles from Earth, and is operating normally at the time of writing. It’s currently floating around interstellar space waiting for someone to give the thumbs up to start the alien invasion (probably).