From The Silicon Graybeard: Voyager 1 is Awake and Communicating!
This past Saturday, April 20, Voyager 1 updated ground control about its health status with a coherent message for the first time in 5 months. While she still isn't fully operational and sending science data back to Earth, Voyager 1 is now returning usable information about the health and operating status of its onboard systems.
If you're a regular reader, you'll recall that back in November, Voyager suddenly started acting like something was seriously wrong. I likened it to the probe having had a stroke, although that's too anthropomorphic. The probe seemed to take commands and respond, it still kept its position and kept the data link back to Earth running, it's just that the replies it sent back were more like incoherent ramblings. Something about its uncle having been eaten by cannibals before the mission started. No, sorry. I made that up.
Click thru for the details. (The image is courtesy of NASA/JPL by way of WikiMedia. Click the image for more details.)
Voyager 1 launched 5 September 1977. It was sent on mission to visit Jupiter, and Saturn. It crossed the heliopause and entered interstellar space in 2012.
Not bad for 1970s tech.
Those were the days when NASA actually accomplished something. Today, it is nothing more than a bloated Government agency to dispense tax dollars with little or no return. Sad.
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