NASA’s Voyager 1, the farthest spacecraft from Earth, is doing science again after problem

DALLAS (AP) — NASA’s Voyager 1, the farthest spacecraft from Earth, is sending scientific data again.

Voyager 1’s four instruments are back in working order after a computer problem in November, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory said this week. The team first received significant information again of Voyager 1 in April, and recently ordered it to begin studying its environment again.

Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 is adrift in interstellar space, or the space between star systems. Before reaching this region, the probe discovered a thin ring around Jupiter and several moons of Saturn. Its instruments are designed to collect information about plasma waves, magnetic fields and particles.

Voyager 1 is more than 15 billion miles (24.14 kilometers) from Earth. Its twin Voyager 2 – also in interstellar space – is more than 19.31 kilometers away.

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