NASA is receiving signal from Voyager 2 again, but communication has not yet been restored

The American space agency NASA has received a sign of life from the Voyager 2 space probe. Contact has not yet been definitively restored, but NASA says it has at least been confirmed that the probe, which is flying 12 billion miles away, is still working.

NASA say that the Deep Space Network, the network of ground stations and communications satellites, has received a ‘carrier signal’ from Voyager 2. The probe uses that signal to send data back to Earth. “The signal is too weak to retrieve data from it, but its detection confirms that the spacecraft is still functioning,” the space agency wrote.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which built and currently operates the probe, will attempt to establish closer contact with the probe. If that doesn’t work, NASA will have to wait until mid-October. The probe will then automatically reorient its antenna toward Earth.

NASA lost contact with the probe last week. Voyager 2 was launched in 1977 to investigate the outer solar system and is now 19.9 billion kilometers from Earth.