Voyager 1, the farthest spacecraft from Earth, has successfully communicated with NASA engineers after five months of problems. The persistent glitch was caused by a corrupted code on a chip that accounts for 3% of the flight data subsystem (FDS) memory. The NASA team worked meticulously to relocate the affected code elsewhere in the FDS memory, dividing it into manageable chunks while ensuring effective storage of other components.
On April 18, 2024, the team began sending the code to its new location in FDS memory, resulting in a successful edit that allowed scientists to reconnect with Voyager 1 and check its status. After 37 years since its launch in 1977, Voyager 1 remains an artificial object that has left the solar system and entered interstellar space. Its successful communication with Earth makes it one of the only man-made objects exploring space beyond the Sun’s influence. Voyager 2, launched six years after Voyager 1, also entered interstellar space in 2018 and continues to function effectively.