Updated

Updated · Gizmodo · Nov 2

Voyager 1 Loses Contact for 2 Days as Thruster Failure Hits Probe Near 1-Light-Day Mark

Updated

Updated · Gizmodo · Nov 2

Voyager 1 Loses Contact for 2 Days as Thruster Failure Hits Probe Near 1-Light-Day Mark

Q: As Voyager 1 approaches one light-day from Earth this November, what mysterious anomaly triggered its emergency thruster switch in deep space?

NASA has not yet determined the exact anomaly. What is known is that Voyager 1’s onboard fault-protection system detected a problem with its active thrusters, causing one thruster set to go offline and automatically switching the spacecraft to its backup thrusters. The brief loss of contact on Oct. 18 and 19 coincided with that automatic safing response. NASA’s Deep Space Network failed twice, 24 hours apart, to detect Voyager 1’s radio signal, before communication resumed on Oct. 20 without engineers first sending corrective commands. Mission managers have said this is the first time Voyager 1 has made this kind of thruster swap so late in its mission, and the cause remains under investigation. So the “mysterious anomaly” was not a confirmed external event or specific hardware failure yet, but an as-yet-unexplained issue that the spacecraft interpreted as trouble in the active thruster system. That investigation is continuing as Voyager 1 nears its next milestone on Nov. 18, when it is expected to become the first human-made object to reach one light-day from Earth.

3 articles · Updated · Gizmodo · Nov 2

NASA lost Voyager 1’s radio signal on Oct. 18 and 19, then regained contact on Oct. 20 after the probe briefly went silent.
One set of thrusters went offline during the outage, triggering backup thrusters and an automatic safe-state response that paused normal operations while engineers investigate.
16 billion miles from Earth, Voyager 1 is expected to reach one light-day distance on Nov. 18, meaning a message and reply will take about two days.
A recent power-saving overhaul swapped three devices for lower-power alternatives, likely extending operations beyond a point when another instrument would otherwise have been shut down by summer 2027.