NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft recently resumed normal science operations after resolving a technical issue that occurred in November 2023. The team made progress in April by getting the spacecraft to start sending engineering data, revealing the spacecraft’s health and status. On May 19, the mission team took the next step in the repair process by commanding the spacecraft to start sending science data. While two of the four science instruments quickly returned to normal, the other two needed some additional work before all four began sending usable science data.
Voyager 1, along with its counterpart Voyager 2, are the only spacecraft to have directly collected samples from interstellar space – the area beyond the heliosphere, which is the protective shield made up of magnetic fields and solar wind produced by the Sun. These four instruments are responsible for studying plasma waves, magnetic fields, and particles in space.