NASA Picks Up 'Heartbeat' Signal From Voyager 2 After Wrong Command Stopped Communication

Two weeks after losing contact with its Voyager 2 probe, Nasa has said the spacecraft picked up a "heartbeat" signal from it.

An artist's concept of the Voyager spacecraft in space.

Around two weeks after losing contact with Voyager 2 probe, NASA said Tuesday it picked up a "heartbeat" signal from the spacecraft. The probe, which has been exploring the universe since 1977, stopped sending data and receiving commands last month after it had reportedly tilted its antenna — following certain wrong commands sent to it — to point two degrees away from Earth.

On Tuesday, Nasa said they picked up a signal from Voyager 2 during a regular sky scan.

"Using multiple antennas, NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) was able to detect a carrier signal (which the probe uses to send data back to Earth) from Voyager 2,” the space agency said in a statement on the website.

Though the carrier signal is “too faint” to extract data from, NASA said, the detection confirmed that the voyager is still working. "The spacecraft also continues on its expected trajectory,” it said. 

In a blog earlier, the space agency had explained the wrong commands “inadvertently” sent to the probe, which resulted in the loss of contact.

“A series of planned commands sent to NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft July 21 inadvertently caused the antenna to point 2 degrees away from Earth. As a result, Voyager 2 is currently unable to receive commands or transmit data back to Earth,” it wrote on July 28.

The tilt interrupted communication between Voyager 2 and the ground antennas of DSN. As a result, the DSN stopped receiving the data being sent by the spacecraft, and the latter is also not receiving commands from ground controllers.

Where Is The Voyager 2 Now?

Voyager 2 is currently located more than 19.9 billion km away from Earth. The spacecraft was built and is operated by a division of Caltech in Pasadena at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

According to NASA, Voyager 2 is programmed in a way that it resets its orientation multiple times every year to keep its antenna pointed towards Earth. The next reset is scheduled for October 15, and the agency has said that should enable the communication between Voyager 2 and DSN to resume. NASA believes Voyager 2 will remain on its planned trajectory during this period.

Meanwhile, Voyager 1 is also operating normally, located almost 24 billion km from Earth.