Voyager 1 resumed coherent telemetry in April 2024 after JPL engineers rewrote software to bypass a failed Flight Data System chip that had garbled transmissions for five months.
The repair split code across surviving memory, with the first patch uploaded on April 18 and a readable reply returning on April 20 after a roughly 45-hour round trip.
At 25.5 billion kilometers from Earth, the spacecraft now sends engineering data at just 160 bits per second, using a 22-watt transmitter whose signal arrives at Earth at about 10^-18 watts.
Power limits are tightening: Voyager 1's output has fallen from 470 watts at launch to about 220 watts in early 2026, leaving only two of its original 10 instruments still operating.
The fix keeps alive the first human-made object in interstellar space, which is expected to keep transmitting into the 2030s before its dwindling nuclear power can no longer run the radio.
In June 2024, NASA achieved a major milestone by fully restoring Voyager 1 to operational status, allowing it to resume collecting and transmitting valuable scientific data from the edge of the Sun’s domain. While the spacecraft is back to conducting science, engineers are still working on final recovery tasks, such as resynchronizing the timekeeping software across its three onboard computers and maintaining the digital tape recorder that stores plasma-wave data. This careful ongoing work ensures that Voyager 1 can execute commands precisely and continue its historic mission in deep space.