Interstellar Voyager 1 resumes operations after a break in communications with NASA

NASA confirmed that after a break in communications with Voyager 1 in late October, the spacecraft regained its voice and resumed normal operations.

Voyager unexpectedly turned off its main radio transmitter, known as X-band, before turning on its much weaker S-band transmitter in October.

The interstellar spacecraft is currently located approximately 25.4 billion kilometers from Earth and the S-band has not been used in more than 40 years.

Communication between NASA and Voyager 1 has been spotty at times, and the shift to lower band has prevented the Voyager mission team from downloading science data and information about the spacecraft's status.

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NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft is depicted in this artist's concept traveling through interstellar space, or the space between the stars, which it entered in 2012. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Earlier this month, the team was able to reactivate the X-band transmitter and resume collecting data from the four operational science instruments aboard Voyager 1.

Now that data can be collected and communications have resumed, engineers are completing a few remaining tasks to return Voyager 1 to the state it was in before the problem occurred. One task is to reset the system that synchronizes Voyager 1's three onboard computers.

The S-band was activated by the spacecraft's fault protection system when engineers activated a heater on Voyager 1. The fault protection system determined that the probe did not have enough power and automatically turns off systems that were not needed to keep the spacecraft in flight in order to continue powering critical systems.

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NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft, shown in this illustration, has been exploring our solar system since 1977, alongside its twin, Voyager 2. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

But in doing so, the probes turned off all nonessential systems except scientific instruments, NASA said, turning off X-band and activating S-band, which uses less power.

Voyager 1 had not used S-band to communicate with Earth since 1981.

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This illustration provided by NASA depicts the farthest spacecraft from Earth, Voyager 1. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California announced this week that Voyager 1's four science instruments were back operational after a technical problem. (NASA via AP, file)

Voyager 1's odyssey began in 1977, when the spacecraft and its twin, Voyager 2, were launched on a tour of the solar system's gas giant planets.

After returning dazzling postcard views of Jupiter's giant red spot and Saturn's shimmering rings, Voyager 2 headed toward Uranus and Neptune. Meanwhile, Voyager 1 used Saturn as a gravitational slingshot to propel itself past Pluto.

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There are 10 scientific instruments on each spacecraft and, according to NASA, four are currently used to study particles, plasma and magnetic fields in interstellar space.