By NASA
August 5, 2023
An artist principle illustrating among NASAs twin Voyager spacecraft. Mankinds farthest and longest-lived spacecraft celebrated 40 years in August and September 2017. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASAs center in Australia successfully reoriented Voyager 2, receiving science and telemetry information verifying the spacecrafts regular operation and anticipated trajectory.
NASAs Deep Space Network center in Canberra, Australia, sent the equivalent of an interstellar “shout” more than 12.3 billion miles (19.9 billion kilometers) to Voyager 2, advising the spacecraft to reorient itself and turn its antenna back to Earth. With a one-way light time of 18.5 hours for the command to reach Voyager, it took 37 hours for objective controllers to learn whether the command worked. At 12:29 a.m. EDT on August 4, the spacecraft started returning science and telemetry data, indicating it is running usually and that it remains on its anticipated trajectory.
Deep Space Station 43 features a 70-meter diameter antenna and is the biggest steerable parabolic antenna in the Southern Hemisphere. Credit: NASA
NASAs Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex (CDSCC) includes a number of huge dish antennas that are needed daily to get data from; and transfer commands to; a wide range of spacecraft. In 1987, Deep Space Station 43 (DSS-43) was expanded from a 64-meter size antenna to a 70-meter size one to bolster its abilities for Voyager 2s 1989 encounter with Neptune.