**NASA Re-establishes Communication with Voyager 1 After Decades-Old Frequency Reboot**

NASA has successfully reconnected with the interstellar spacecraft Voyager 1, which is now over 15 billion miles from Earth, using a frequency that had not been utilized in more than four decades. The encounter follows an extended period of sporadic communication with the venerable spacecraft.

Voyager 1 ceased transmitting readable data to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California on November 14, 2023. The situation remained unresolved until April when mission controllers began receiving commands again. An autonomous fault protection system onboard Voyager 1, designed to handle issues by conserving power, recently turned off one of the spacecraft's two transmitters.

On October 16, NASA’s flight team issued a command to activate one of Voyager 1's heaters. This command, like all communications with the spacecraft, took nearly 23 hours to reach Voyager 1 and another 23 hours for the data to return to Earth. By October 18, the team realized something was amiss when the Deep Space Network could no longer detect Voyager 1's signal. Engineers inferred that the fault protection system had reduced the data transmission rate, altering the X-band signal that the Deep Space Network was supposed to monitor.

Initial stability reports were positive, but communication with Voyager 1 halted completely on October 19. The team suspected the fault protection system triggered another response, switching operations to the S-band transmitter, a frequency last used by Voyager 1 in 1981.

The Deep Space Network engineers successfully detected the S-band signal from Voyager 1. To avoid further complications, they opted to confirm the S-band transmitter's status before attempting to reactivate the X-band transmitter. This decisive command was sent on October 22. Now, the team is focused on diagnosing the issue fully to restore Voyager 1 to its regular operations.

Voyager 1, launched alongside its twin Voyager 2 in 1977, initially embarked on a mission to explore the gas giants of our solar system. While Voyager 2 continued its trek to Uranus and Neptune after capturing remarkable images of Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager 1 used Saturn's gravity to slingshot itself beyond Pluto and into interstellar space.