NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft, launched on September 5, 1977, has resumed full operation after experiencing issues for six months. Voyager 1 is currently the farthest spacecraft from Earth, located 15.2 billion miles away. In November 2023, the spacecraft started sending gibberish instead of decipherable data, which was later identified as a problem with the Flight Data System (FDS). Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory fixed the issue by relocating the information housed on a broken chip to other parts of the system and rewriting the relevant code. In April 2024, Voyager 1 started communicating again, but only some of its systems were working. However, after the most recent change, all four of Voyager 1's instruments are now operational. There is still some work to be done to synchronize the spacecraft's three onboard computers. Voyager 1 is one of the two oldest active spacecraft in the fleet [b7261952].
According to Gulf Today, the Voyager 1 spacecraft is now sending back messages from 24 billion kilometers away in 22.5 hours. The spacecraft, which had experienced mechanical problems, is back in action and has resumed communication with Earth. The article also mentions a mystery Chinese spacecraft that recently returned to Earth after 276 days, but no details about its mission or released images have been provided [2850ccfd].
In addition to the news about Voyager 1, NASA has successfully transmitted a high-resolution video of a cat from deep space using the advanced communications system of the Psyche spacecraft. The video was transmitted using a laser transmitter and receiver on the Psyche probe, which is traveling towards the main asteroid belt. The laser beam was directed from 31 million kilometers away, and the encoded near-infrared signal was received by the Hale Telescope at Caltech's Palomar Observatory and transmitted to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The successful transmission of the cat video showcases the potential for lasers to significantly increase data speed in space missions. Furthermore, NASA transmitted over 500 pet photos to the International Space Station, including images of cats, dogs, cows, bats, pigs, and snakes owned by NASA employees. The goal is to create high-bandwidth communications between Earth and spacecraft, with the eventual aim of transmitting HD photos and live video across billions of miles in deep space [9fc8038f].