Voyager 1 is the second - longest operating space vehicle in human story , lose out only to Voyager 2 which establish a few hebdomad in the first place in 1977 . *

The spacecraft has traveled further than any human - made object , crossing the heliopause and heading intointerstellar space . While doing this , it has remain to send back useful data to Earth , help oneself us determine about the space between stars outside of our own Solar System . All this , while working with just69.63 kilobytesof memory , about the size of it of an average JPEG , and running partly on code write in archaic figurer words Fortran 5 .

With such a mission , you ’d carry the casual challenge , even before you take into news report thehigh actinotherapy environmentit is heading through . And glitches most definitely have pass off , includingmysterious telemetry datathat was sent back last year , belike the result of the information pass through an old onboard computer which had not been functional for years .

That was fixed in August 2022 , but now there is a young problem , and it ’s a frustrative one .

" The spacecraft is receiving and executing command send from Earth ; however , the [ flight of stairs data point system ] is not communicating properly with one of the probe ’s subsystems , call off the telecommunication unit ( TMU ) , " NASA explained in astatement . " As a termination , no scientific discipline or engineering information is being get off back to Earth . "

Instead of send back the usual varied data packages in binary code , the TMU has begun " transmitting a repeating pattern of unity and zero as if it were ' stuck ' . " NASA believes the reference of the problem is the flight data organization , and last weekend set about to reset the computer to the state it was in before the erroneous belief occurred . However , the ballistic capsule has continued to air unserviceable datum . The squad will continue to act upon on solutions , before the painstaking 45 - hr hold to encounter out if it worked .

" find solutions to challenges the probes encounter often mean consulting original , decades - onetime text file spell by engineers who did n’t promise the issues that are originate today , " NASA added . " As a upshot , it takes time for the team to infer how a new command will pretend the ballistic capsule ’s operation for obviate unintended outcome . "

  • The answer to your inevitable interrogation of " why was Voyager 2 launched first " is that Voyager 1 was on afaster routeto its terrestrial targets , and so was given the honour of the 1 .