# Contact restored with Voyager 1 after two days of silence

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/voyager-1-gives-controllers-the-silent-treatment/
- Published: 2026-10-30T15:30:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-30T15:49:14+00:00
- Original publisher: The Register
- Original article: https://www.theregister.com/science/2026/10/30/voyager-1-gives-controllers-the-silent-treatment/5306637
- Topics: Health, Medicine

## Key points

- Voyager 1’s signal disappeared for two days.
- Contact returned on 20 October.
- A one-day communications delay is approaching.

## Summary

Voyager 1 resumed contact with NASA after the Deep Space Network failed to detect its signal on 18 and 19 October. The brief silence raised concern about the ageing probe’s condition, but engineers are investigating what happened; the incident shows how fragile communications have become as the spacecraft approaches its 50th year.

The signal returned on 20 October, apparently after a group of thrusters went offline and backup thrusters were activated, possibly as part of a safe mode response. NASA recently completed a “Big Bang” procedure to switch both Voyager probes to lower-power equipment and extend their lives. In a few weeks, Voyager 1 will be so distant that a command will take 24 hours to arrive and its reply another 24 hours to reach Earth.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.