Voyager 1 regains contact after a brief loss of signal

NASA's Deep Space Network could not detect a radio signal from Voyager 1 in two scheduled attempts on Oct 18 and 19. The signal returned on Oct 20, and contact has held since.

One group of thrusters went offline and its backups turned on, an automatic fault-protection response that pauses normal operations. Engineers are still investigating what caused it.

Power each Voyager loses every year

4 watts

Each Voyager loses about 4 watts of power a year, so in September engineers swapped three devices for lower-power ones to keep the science instruments running longer.

25.89 billion km from Earth

On Nov 18, Voyager 1 will be one light-day from Earth: radio signals take 24 hours to reach it, and 24 more to come back.