Voyager 2 Is Truly All Alone Right Now

NASA's made a bit of a boo-boo. They recently sent a series of planned commands to Voyager 2, which is something they do from time to time. However, somewhere in those commands was apparently an order to rotate the craft by 2 degrees. That's not a lot, but when we're dealing with a spacecraft over 12 billion miles away, it's more than enough to completely cut communication with Voyager 2. Oops.

There is some good news. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory confirmed a bit later utilizing the Deep Space Network that Voyager 2 is still broadcasting. They didn't fully lose it; Voyager 2 is still alive. NASA engineers will attempt to contact the probe and get it to point back at Earth. But even if that doesn't work, all is not lost, as Voyager 2 is programmed to automatically point itself at Earth every few months. The next reorientation is scheduled for October 15. Contact should be resumed then.

In the end, this should represent a relatively harmless blip in Voyager 2's long life, but also, come on NASA, what are you doing? Voyager's been cruising for 46 years now and it's billions and billions of miles away? Don't get it upset now. Come on.