NASA engineers fix data glitch on 45-year-old Voyager 1 spacecraft

Engineers have finally fixed a mysterious issue affecting data from NASA's 45-year-old Voyager 1 spacecraft, but are still seeking the root cause. The issue was identified earlier this year.

While the interstellar explorer was operating normally and gathering and returning science data, the probe's attitude articulation and control system (AACS) began sending garbled information about its health and activities to mission controllers.

AACS controls the spacecraft's orientation - keeps its high-gain antenna pointed precisely at Earth, enabling it to send data home. According to NASA, a critical system aboard the Voyager 1 probe was sending garbled data about its status.

"The team has since located the source of the garbled information: The AACS had started sending the telemetry data through an onboard computer known to have stopped working years ago, and the computer corrupted the information," the agency said in a statement on Tuesday.

The mission team will continue to search for the underlying issue, but they don't think it is a threat to the long-term health of the spacecraft.

"We're happy to have the telemetry back. We'll do a full memory readout of the AACS and look at everything it's been doing. That will help us try to diagnose the problem that caused the telemetry issue in the first place. So we're cautiously optimistic, but we still have more investigating to do," said Suzanne Dodd, Voyager's project manager.

Good news: Engineers have fixed the issue that, earlier this year, caused my attitude control system data to come back garbled. The team has declared me healthy, which is great, because I still have more interstellar exploring to do! More at https://t.co/lzaY0bgcAT

— NASA Voyager (@NASAVoyager) August 30, 2022

Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched in 1977 and 45 years later the probes remain on the cutting edge of space exploration. The twin spacecraft are the only probes to ever explore interstellar space - the region outside the heliopause, or the bubble of energetic particles and magnetic fields from the Sun.