NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft after mistake led to weeks of silence

By MARCIA DUNN
AP Aerospace Writer

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft is back in contact again, after flight controllers corrected a mistake that had led to weeks of silence. Hurtling ever deeper into interstellar space billions of miles away, Voyager 2 stopped communicating two weeks ago. That’s because controllers sent the wrong command to the 46-year-old spacecraft and tilted its antenna away from Earth. NASA’s Deep Space Network sent a new command in hopes of repointing the antenna. The long shot paid off. On Friday, the spacecraft started returning data again. Voyager 2 was launched in 1977 followed two weeks later by its twin, Voyager 1.