After months of broadcasting what amounted to interstellar gibberish, NASA’s dearly beloved Voyager 1 has finally started making sense again, like a grandparent waking up from a long, technical-support-induced nap. The spacecraft, which has not seen a mechanic since 1977 and is currently more than 15 billion miles from Earth, had been transmitting data that looked less like scientific measurements and more like the spaceship equivalent of holding down every button on a microwave at once.
The problem began in November when Voyager 1’s flight data system began acting like it had joined a poetry slam instead of a scientific mission. Instead of relaying detailed information about its subsystems, it sent back data that was, according to engineers, “not usable.” Which is the official NASA term for “we have no idea what this is, but it’s definitely not helpful.”
NASA now confirms that engineers were able to fix the issue by performing one of the more mind-bending IT support calls in history, involving a painstaking remote operation carried out over the kind of distance that would make even the most adventurous satellite technician call in sick. The culprit was a malfunctioning chip within one of Voyager 1’s three on-board computers. Because simply replacing the part was not an option unless NASA had plans to invent some sort of warp-capable geek squad van, they instead rewired the software to write its data elsewhere. In human terms, this is roughly akin to giving someone brain surgery via postcard.
On April 20, Voyager began sending comprehensible engineering data again, confirming that it was not only still functioning but continuing its lonesome journey through the cosmic void with all systems annoyingly intact. NASA engineers will next coax it into sending back data from its scientific instruments, once again giving humanity the privilege of staring into the abyss with slightly better resolution.
The spacecraft is healthy and operating normally, said NASA, making it the only 46-year-old piece of technology about which that sentence can still be said in good faith.
Voyager 1 continues to transmit from the outer reaches of the Milky Way, where it quietly contemplates the nature of the universe and occasionally phones home to remind us who was here first.
And yes, it still has less downtime than your Wi-Fi router.