Get the latest tech news

VGER is still looking for the creator: NASA's Voyager finally phoned home with a device unused since 1981 | Mashable

This interstellar traveler is a survivor.

Two days later, when NASA expected to receive a response from the spacecraft, the team learned something tripped Voyager's fault protection system, which turned off its X-band transmitter. Days later, engineers with the Deep Space Network, a system of three enormous radio dish arrays on Earth, found the signal whispering back over the S-band transmitter. When onboard issues occur, such as the spacecraft overdrawing its power supply, the system will automatically turn less-critical equipment off so that it can continue flying.

Get the Android app