Most distant spacecraft from Earth sends data to NASA for first time in 5 months
CBSN
The most distant spacecraft from Earth has resumed sending data after a five-month gap, NASA said Monday.
NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft was launched in 1977, about two weeks after the launch of its twin, Voyager 2. The spacecraft has spent over 45 years studying the outer solar system and has made flybys of Jupiter and Saturn and traveled more than 46,000,000,000 miles.
In November 2023, the spacecraft stopped sending "readable science and engineering data," NASA said in a news release. Mission controllers were able to determine that Voyager 1 was still receiving commands from Earth and operating normally, but the science data could not be read and researchers did not know the status of the craft's onboard engineering systems.
When Los Angeles Police Department officers in riot gear arrived at the University of California, Los Angeles early Thursday, the anonymous messaging app Sidechat filled with posts trying to piece together what was happening: "Is everyone ok? I just heard like 8 cop cars go by," one post read. Others shared rumors about police action and outside agitators and pointed students to live streams to watch the events unfold.