NASA cut off from Voyager-2 till 2021 as only antenna capable of contact undergoes repairs

In a worrisome development for NASA's Voyager-2 probe, the American space agency will be unable to contact it till 2021 - approximately 11 months, as per international reports. The reason for this loss in communication is that the DSS43  radio antenna at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex is down as it is in dire need of upgrades, as per reports. The antenna will reportedly undergo scheduled maintenance later this month and will last until January 2021 - cutting off NASA controllers from transmitting commands to Voyager 2.

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Antenna up-gradation cuts off NASA contact from Voyager-2

The DSS43 radio antenna is reportedly the only system on Earth capable of communicating with NASA’s Voyager 2 probe, which is currently 18.5 billion kilometres (11.5 billion miles) from Earth. The Deep Space Antenna measures 230 feet wide and is 20 stories high and is housed in the Canberra station - a part of NASA's Deep Space Network. The antenna which is 40 years old, reportedly requires repairs and modern upgrades.

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NASA fixes Voyager-2 remotely

Earlier in February, NASA managed to fix its Voyager-2 probe remotely, almost 11.5 billion miles away from its location. The probe has reportedly been acting in an unexpected manner as it failed to carry out a maneuver as planned on January 25. Moreover, the glitch in the probe was detected by the spacecraft’s fault detection software which was relayed to NASA.

Reports state that on detection of the glitch, the spacecraft's fault detection software shutdown Voyager 2's science instruments. Soon, NASA engineers had managed to successfully powered down one of the systems and had also managed to reboot some of the science instruments. But it had failed to gather any new data, as per reports.

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What is Voyager 2?

Launched in 1977, Voyager-2 is the twin of Voyager-1 which was launched a few weeks prior to it. Both probes were launched to perform a 'grand tour' of the outer solar system. Both spacecraft have conducted flybys of Jupiter and Saturn - with Voyager 2 successfully zooming past Uranus in 1986 and Neptune in 1989, making it the only spacecraft to have had a close look of the icy planets. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are currently about 13.8 billion miles (22.2 billion kilometers) and 11.5 billion miles (13.5 billion km) from Earth, respectively.

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