now voyager archive.org

• Filmsite Home
• About & Contact
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use

Copyright © 1996-2024 Filmsite LLC. All rights reserved.

Now, Voyager

• Photos & Videos

Film Details

• Articles & Reviews

Brief Synopsis

Cast & crew, irving rapper, bette davis, paul henreid, claude rains, gladys cooper, bonita granville, photos & videos, technical specs.

Dowdy, thirtyish Charlotte Vale lives with her dictatorial, aristocratic mother in a Boston mansion. Fearing that Charlotte is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, her sister-in-law Lisa brings psychiatrist Dr. Jaquith to the Vale home to examine her unobtrusively. Jaquith's observations and conversation with Charlotte convince him that she is, in fact, very ill, and he recommends that she visit his sanitarium, Cascade. Away from her domineering mother, Charlotte recovers quickly, but does not feel ready to return home and accepts Lisa's proposal of a long cruise as an alternative. On board the ship, a newly chic Charlotte is introduced to Jerry Durrance, who is also traveling alone. The two spend a day sight-seeing together, during which time the married Jerry asks Charlotte to help him choose gifts for his two daughters. Charlotte is touched when Jerry thanks her with a small bottle of perfume. Subsequently, Charlotte tells Jerry about her family and her breakdown and learns from his good friends, Deb and Frank McIntyre, that Jerry is unhappily married but will never leave his family. After the ship docks in Rio de Janeiro, Jerry and Charlotte become stranded on Sugarloaf Mountain and spend the night together. Having missed her boat, Charlotte stays with Jerry in Rio for five days before flying to Buenos Aires to rejoin the cruise. Although they have fallen in love, they promise not to see each other again. Back in Boston, Charlotte's family is stunned by her transformation. Her mother, however, is determined to regain control over her daughter. Charlotte's resolve to remain independent is strengthened by the timely arrival of some camellias. Although there is no card, Charlotte knows the flowers are from Jerry because he had called her by the nickname "Camille," and, reminded of his love, she is able to forge a new relationship with her mother. Charlotte eventually becomes engaged to eligible widower Elliot Livingston. One night, at a party, Charlotte encounters Jerry, who is now working as an architect, a profession he had renounced years before in deference to his wife's wishes. His youngest daughter Tina is now seeing Dr. Jaquith for her own emotional problems. Charlotte asks Jerry not to blame himself for their affair as she gained much from knowing that he loved her. This chance encounter forces Charlotte to realize that she does not love Elliot passionately, and they break their engagement, so angering Mrs. Vale that during an argument with Charlotte, she has a heart attack and dies. Guilty and distraught, Charlotte returns to Cascade, where she meets Tina. Seeing herself in the girl, Charlotte takes charge of her, with Jaquith's tentative approval. When Tina improves enough, Charlotte takes her home to Boston. Later, Jerry and Jaquith visit the Vale home, and Jerry is delighted by the change in Tina. Charlotte warns him, however, that she is only able to keep Tina with her on condition that she and Jerry end their affair. Jerry believes that he is responsible for her decision not to marry Elliot, but Charlotte reassures him otherwise, saying that Tina is his gift to her and her way of being close to him. Jerry then asks if Charlotte is happy and she responds, "Well, Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon; we have the stars."

Lee Patrick

Franklin Pangborn

Katherine Alexander

James Rennie

Mary Wickes

Michael ames.

Charles Drake

David clyde.

Frank Puglia

Janis wilson, claire du brey.

Don Douglas

Charlotte wynters, lester matthews, sheila hayward, bill edwards, isabel withers, yola d'avril, georges renavent, bill kennedy, reed hadley, elspeth dudgeon, george lessey.

Constance Purdy

Corbet morris, hilda plowright, tempe pigott, dorothy vaughan, martha acker, al alleborn, eddie allen, george becker, edward blatt, meta carpenter, phyllis clark, joseph cramer, emmett emerson, frank evans, leo f. forbstein, hugh friedhofer, robert haas, robert b. lee, rydo loshak, fred m. maclean, scotty more, harold noyes, charles o'bannon, casey robinson, marguerite royce, sherry shourds, gilbert souto, max steiner, willard van enger, perc westmore, photo collections.

Hosted Intro

Award Nominations

Best actress, best supporting actress, the essentials - now, voyager.

Pop Culture 101 - Now, Voyager

Trivia - now, voyager - trivia & fun facts about now, voyager, trivia - now, voyager - trivia & fun facts about now, voyager, the big idea - now, voyager, behind the camera - now, voyager, critics' corner - now, voyager, critics' corner - now, voyager.

No member of the Vale family has ever had a nervous breakdown. - Mrs. Henry Windle Vale

Well there's one having one now. - Dr. Jasquith

Oh Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars. - Charlotte Vale

Remember what it says in the Bible, "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away." - Dr. Jasquith

How does it feel to be the Lord? - Charlotte Vale

Not so very wonderful, since the Free Will Bill was passed. Too little power. - Dr. Jasquith

I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid, mother. I'm not afraid. - Charlotte Vale

A maiden aunt is an ideal person to select presents for young girls. - Charlotte

Producer Hal B. Wallis originally wanted Irene Dunne for the lead role, but Bette Davis convinced him otherwise.

The Walt Whitman poem Bette Davis reads (just before leaving Cascades) is "The Untold Want" from Songs of Parting (just 2 lines): "The untold want by life and land ne'er granted / Now voyager sail thou forth to seek and find."

Bette Davis complained about 'Max Steiner' 's Academy Award-winning musical score, saying that it was too intrusive on her performance.

The film is remembered for the scene in which Paul Henreid places two cigarettes in his mouth, lights them, and then passes one to Bette Davis, but it wasn't an original idea - a similar exchange occurred ten years earlier between Davis and 'George Brent' in _Rich Are Always With Us, The (1932)_ .

The title of Olive Higgins Prouty's novel was taken from Walt Whitman's poem "The Untold Want." In a letter to literary agent Harold Ober included in the Warner Bros. Collection at the USC Cinema-Television Library, Prouty made the following suggestions about the novel's adaptation: "...In my novel I tell my story by the method of frequent flashbacks....It has occurred to me, however, that by employing the silent picture for the flashbacks, in combination with the talking picture, similar results can be accomplished, and with much interest to an audience because of the novelty of the technique....I am one of those who believe the silent picture had artistic potentialities which the talking picture lacks. The acting, facial expressions, every move and gesture is more significant....Of course the silent picture has 'gone out' now, but I believe it has a place, for depicting what goes on in the mind of a character...."        Various contemporary sources add the following information about the production: Mary Astor was first signed as the second female lead and Norma Shearer and Irene Dunne were approached to play the role of "Charlotte." Producer Hal Wallis sent Ginger Rogers a copy of Olive Higgins Prouty's novel, hoping to interest her in the film. Juanita Quigley tested for the role of "Tina." Director Edmund Goulding wrote a treatment for the film and, at that time, was scheduled to direct; later Michael Curtiz was assigned to direct the film. Some scenes were filmed on location in Laguna Beach, CA and the Cascade scenes were filmed at Lake Arrowhead, CA. Although Frank Puglia's character is called "Giovanni" in the film, contemporary reviews, the screenplay and the CBCS list it as "Manoel."        According to modern sources, Prouty had written an elaborate cigarette-lighting ceremony for her characters, which proved too awkward to complete on film. In its place, Henreid invented a romantic gesture which has since become famous. He lit two cigarettes at the same time and handed one of the cigarettes to "Charlotte." Modern feminist critics have described Now Voyager as an "initiation" or "coming of age" film in which a psychologically immature woman becomes a self-determining adult and comment favorably on the accurate depiction of the mother-daughter relationship. Although contemporary critics derided the film as contrived and melodramatic, it was Warner Bros. fourth-highest grossing film in 1942 and has enjoyed an enduring popularity. Max Steiner won an Oscar for Best Score, and both Gladys Cooper and Bette Davis were nominated for Academy Awards. The film was adapted for radio and, starring Bette Davis and Gregory Peck, was broadcast on The Lux Radio Theatre on February 11, 1946 and May 24, 1955.

Miscellaneous Notes

Released in United States 1942

Released in United States on Video April 5, 1988

Sign Up now to stay up to date with all of the latest news from TCM.

Your Browser is Not Supported

To view this content, please use one of the following compatible browsers:

Safari v11+

Firefox Quantum

Microsoft Edge

Now, Voyager

Selected by the Costume Designers Branch. Introduction by Costume Designer & Historian, Professor Deborah Nadoolman Landis PhD Director, UCLA/David C. Copley Center for Costume Design

Selected by the Costume Designers Branch. 

Bette Davis gave one of her most iconic performances as Charlotte Vale, the unhappy daughter of an emotionally abusive mother (Gladys Cooper), who is able to come out of her shell with the help of two men—a sympathetic therapist (Claude Rains) and a handsome married man (Paul Henreid). Davis’s transformation was helped greatly by the costume designs of three-time Oscar winner Orry-Kelly ( An American in Paris , Some Like It Hot ). The film was nominated for Davis and Cooper’s performances, and won for Max Steiner’s romantic score.

DIRECTED BY: Irving Rapper. WRITTEN BY: Casey Robinson. WITH: Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Gladys Cooper. 1942. 119 min. USA. B&W. English. 35mm. Print courtesy of the Packard Humanities Institute Collection at the UCLA Film & Television Archive.

Academy museum film programming generously funded by the richard roth foundation..

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Now, Voyager

• A frumpy spinster blossoms under therapy and becomes an elegant, independent woman.
• Boston spinster Charlotte has had her life controlled entirely by her wealthy mother, Mrs. Henry Vale. Feeling despondent, she's convinced to spend time in a sanitarium. Soon she is transformed into a sophisticated, confident woman. On a cruise to South America, Charlotte meets and begins an affair with Jerry Durrance, a married architect. Six months later, she returns home and confronts her mother with her independence. One day, after a brief argument, her mother has a heart attack and dies. Charlotte inherits the Vale fortune but feels guilty of her mother's death. She returns to the sanitarium, where she befriends a depressed young adolescent, Tina. The young girl's depression was brought on by being rejected by her mother--Charlotte's former lover Jerry's wife. Charlotte takes Tina home to Boston with her. — Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Charlotte Vale has never been out from under the domination of her matronly mother until she enters a sanitarium. Transformed into an elegant, independent woman, Charlotte begins to blossom as an individual. On a cruise to South America, she meets and falls in love for the first time with a man named Jerry--who turns out to be married. Upon her return, Charlotte confronts her mother, who dies of a heart attack. Guilt-ridden and despondent, Charlotte returns to the sanitarium, where she meets Tina. a depressed young woman who begins to find happiness with her new friend Charlotte. The connection they share is more than friendship: Tina is Jerry's daughter. Through her friendship with Charlotte, Tina finds happiness, and the pair go back to Charlotte's home in Boston. When Jerry sees how happy his daughter is, he leaves her with Charlotte. What about marriage for Charlotte and Jerry? "Don't ask for the moon when we have the stars." — Ed Stephan <[email protected]>
• The love story of middle-aged spinster Charlotte Vale, who suffers a nervous breakdown because of her domineering mother and is finally freed after a brief love affair with Jerry, a man she meets while on a cruise after spending time in a sanitarium. They never marry, but through a miracle of chance she ends up looking after his daughter for a time. — Michael Stutz <[email protected]>
• Charlotte Vale is a dumpy, overweight spinster, never out of the sight of her domineering mother, the widowed matriarch of a wealthy Boston family. Charlotte has four older brothers and is always described by Mrs. Vale as an ugly duckling. Charlotte is high-strung and deeply depressed, on the verge of a nervous breakdown, due to the constant squashing of her thoughts by her mother. There is a little spark of independence, though--she secretly smokes and expresses some creativity by carving ivory boxes. Then a psychiatrist, Dr. Jaquith, is invited to tea by her sister-in-law Lisa Vale. He tells Charlotte that he can help her, that he can show her which path to take at the fork in the road. After an ugly scene with her niece June Vale, who is Lisa's daughter but displays Mrs. Vale's cruelty, Charlotte finally accepts Dr. Jaquith's offer and goes to the mountain retreat where he works. The hospital offers the attention and crucial building up of her self-esteem. She changes from a mouse to an attractive figure of social grace and appeal. On a holiday cruise, Charlotte tries out her new persona, the test run that Dr. Jaquith encouraged to evaluate her level of recovery. She grows comfortable with her new image, no longer awkward in company but aloof enough to be interesting. A French gentleman, Jerry Durance, becomes fascinated with her and soon is so in love with her that he can barely think of being without her. Charlotte loves him too, but knows that their affair must never be known, for Jerry is married, but unhappily tied to a wife who is cold, selfish and a hypochondriac. Yet he loves his children and his emotionally troubled youngest daughter, Tina. They part ways, at last, much to the agony of Jerry and the silent desperation of Charlotte. She returns to her home in Boston, and becomes involved with Elliot Livingston. But she doesn't love him and soon the engagement is over. Even worse, after an argument with Charlotte, Mrs. Vale has another heart attack and dies. Charlotte returns to the clinic for a break, emotionally overwrought. She meets a young girl who is very shy and not overtly pretty. Soon she discovers it is Tina, the daughter of Jerry. Charlotte takes Tina under her wing, believing in the ugly duckling and knowing that she can become a swan. After all, Tina is exactly how Charlotte was. How can she cope with seeing Jerry again, though? And know that Tina will never truly be her daughter, her flesh and blood. Charlotte develops a maternal bond with Tina and hopes only for Jerry's love. Even though he can never leave his wife. But to Charlotte, Tina is a piece of him; together they can love her. And she believes that they have the stars together now, they mustn't ask for the moon.

Contribute to this page

• See more gaps
• Learn more about contributing

More from this title

More to explore.

Now, voyager.

By olive higgins prouty.

• 11 Want to read
• 0 Currently reading
• 0 Have read

My Reading Lists:

Use this Work

Create a new list

My book notes.

My private notes about this edition:

Buy this book

This edition doesn't have a description yet. Can you add one ?

Previews available in: English

Showing 5 featured editions. View all 5 editions?

Add another edition?

Book Details

Published in.

Garden City, N. Y

Classifications

The physical object, community reviews (0).

• Created September 19, 2008
• 2 revisions

Wikipedia citation

Copy and paste this code into your Wikipedia page. Need help?

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Now Voyager,' with Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, at the Hollywood -- 'Flying Tigers Featured at Capitol

• Oct. 23, 1942

Although it carries a professional bedside manner, "Now, Voyager," Bette Davis's latest tribulation at the Hollywood, contains not a little quackery. For two hours of heartache and repeated renunciation, Miss Davis lays bare the morbidities of a repressed ugly duckling who finally finds herself as a complete woman. From the original novel, Casey Robinson has created a deliberate and workmanlike script which more than once reaches into troubled emotions. Director Irving Rapper has screened it with frequent effectiveness. But "Now, Voyager," either because of the Hays office or its own spurious logic, endlessly complicates an essentially simple theme. For all its emotional hair-splitting, it fails to resolve its problems as truthfully as it pretends. In fact, a little more truth would have made the film a good deal shorter.In a personal study of the sort which Miss Davis has accepted as her forte, the film tells the story of an unattractive, hysterical girl enslaved by maternal tyranny and how through the ministrations of a psychiatrist, and even more through an abortive love affair on a southward cruise, she finally emerges from the dark chrysalis of her neurosis into the light of day. But the man whose love restores her is himself unhappily married to a woman he dares not hurt, and his own child has been victimized by the insecurity of an unsettled home. After several renunciations, Miss Davis and Paul Henried, as the married lover, form a curious partnership to aid the child. Violently in love with each other, they enter a platonic relationship in which Miss Davis keeps the child and Mr. Henried keeps his unwanted wife.It is in these endless renunciations that the story moves from a direct and common-sense dramatic treatment into a prudish fantasy. Chained to a personal unhappiness, the lover's refusal to consummate his love for Miss Davis itself becomes a suspicious symptom. His nobility is phony—in his self-enforced martyrdom he is no less neurotic than the woman he has helped to bring to life. And certainly the final solution is more explosive than the original problem. Two people continually resisting their affection for one another while raising a child in partnership opens whole vistas of new neuroses.Miss Davis plays the young woman, high-lighting her progress to emotional maturity with the decision and accuracy of an assured actress. Claude Rains offers a polished and even-tempered performance as the psychiatrist. But Gladys Cooper's tyrannical dowager is arbitrarily written and acted, and Paul Henried never brings into focus the ambiguously conceived character of the lovelorn husband. Although "Now, Voyager" starts out bravely, it ends exactly where it started—and after two lachrymose hours.

NOW, VOYAGER; screen play by Casey Robinson; based on the novel by Olive Higgins Prouty; directed by Irving Rapper; produced by Hal B. Wallis for Warner Brothers.Charlotte Vale . . . . . Bette DavisJerry Durrance . . . . . Paul HenreidDr. Jaquith . . . . . Claude RainsMrs. Henry Windle Vale . . . . . Gladys CooperJune Vale . . . . . Bonita GranvilleLisa Vale . . . . . Ilka ChaseElliot Livingston . . . . . John LoderDeb McIntyre . . . . . Lee PatrickMr. Thompson . . . . . Franklin PangbornMiss Trask . . . . . Katherine AlexanderFrank McIntyre . . . . . James RennieDora Pickford . . . . . Mary WickesTina Durrance . . . . . Janis WilsonDr. Dan Regan . . . . . Michael AmesLeslie Trotter . . . . . Charles DrakeManoel . . . . . Frank PugliaWilliam . . . . . David Clyde

• Programs ’24

Psychiatry Films from AMHF: “Now, Voyager” (1942)

by Evander Lomke on February 19, 2012 6:23 pm

Thoughtful, caring: The ultimate analyst as shaman

Now, Voyager is the second “psychiatry film” in this series of blogs on movies with themes or characters that are relevant to the mission of AMHF. Released almost seventy years ago (October 22, 1942), Now, Voyager, which gets its title from lines in a poem by Walt Whitman (“The Untold Want”) , was something of a milestone in the career of Bette Davis . More to the point, though thought of as a weepie, the movie has important things to say about the power of psychoanalysis in the character of Dr. Jaquith, commandingly portrayed by Claude Rains .

The relatively complex plot, from Wikipedia, follows.

Charlotte Vale (Bette Davis) is an unattractive, overweight, repressed spinster whose life is dominated by her dictatorial mother (Gladys Cooper), an aristocratic Boston dowager whose verbal and emotional abuse of her daughter has contributed to the woman’s complete lack of self-confidence. Fearing Charlotte is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, her sister-in-law Lisa (Ilka Chase) introduces her to psychiatrist Dr. Jaquith (Claude Rains), who recommends she spend time in his sanatorium.

Away from her mother’s control, Charlotte blossoms. The transformed woman, at Lisa’s urging, opts to take a lengthy cruise rather than immediately return home. On board ship, she meets a married man, Jeremiah Duvaux Durrance ( Paul Henreid ), who is traveling with his friends Deb (Lee Patrick) and Frank McIntyre (James Rennie). It is from them that Charlotte learns of Jerry’s devotion to his young daughter, Christine (“Tina”), and how it keeps him from divorcing his wife, a manipulative, jealous woman who keeps Jerry from engaging in his chosen career of architecture, despite the fulfillment he gets from it.

Charlotte and Jerry become friendly, and in Rio de Janeiro the two are stranded on Sugarloaf Mountain when their car crashes. They miss the ship and spend five days together before Charlotte flies to Buenos Aires to rejoin the cruise. Although they have fallen in love, they decide it would be best not to see each other again.

When she arrives home, Charlotte’s family is stunned by the dramatic changes in her appearance and demeanor. Her mother is determined to regain control over her daughter, but Charlotte is resolved to remain independent. The memory of Jerry’s love and devotion help to give her the strength she needs to remain resolute.

Charlotte becomes engaged to wealthy, well-connected widower Elliot Livingston (John Loder), but after a chance meeting with Jerry, she breaks off the engagement, about which she quarrels with her mother. Her mother becomes so angry that she has a heart attack and dies. Guilty and distraught, Charlotte returns to the sanatorium.

When she arrives, she is immediately diverted from her own problems when she meets lonely, unhappy Tina, who greatly reminds her of herself; both were unwanted and unloved by their mothers. She is shaken out of her depression and instead becomes interested in Tina’s welfare. With Dr. Jaquith’s permission she takes the girl under her wing. When she improves, Charlotte takes her home to Boston.

Jerry and Dr. Jaquith visit the Vale home, where Jerry is delighted to see the changes in his daughter. While he initially pities Charlotte, believing her to be settling in her life, he’s taken aback by her acid contempt for his initial condescension. Dr. Jaquith has agreed to allow Charlotte to keep Tina there with the understanding that her relationship with Jerry will remain platonic. She tells Jerry that she sees Tina as his gift to her and her way of being close to him. When Jerry asks her if she’s happy, Charlotte finds much to value in her life and if it isn’t everything she would want, tells him, “Oh, Jerry, don’t let’s ask for the moon. We have the stars,” a line ranked number 46 in the American Film Institute’s list of the top 100 movie quotes in American cinema.

There is so much going on in this film, it is impossible to reduce the plot to “the beneficial effects of psychoanalysis on a seriously repressed personality.” The relationship between Charlotte and her domineering mother takes center stage, and is reflected in a subplot involving Charlotte and the young Tina. Jerry remains a bit of a cad from one point of view; yet, his influence on Charlotte is positive. She is out of her shell when they chance to meet. But it is Jerry who informs the rest of Charlotte’s life.

We see little of the actual methodology of Dr. Jaquith. In many ways, like the Marlon Brando character in Don Juan DeMarco , Claude Rains’s doctor-portrayal is almost as unrealistically indulgent and thoughtful on a single patient: Dr. Jaquith is an idealized psychiatrist, a magician of sorts.

As a study of the transforming power of analysis, the film is a little less believable in the first part, since (unlike Don Juan DeMarco), the viewer is privy to little of the psychiatrist’s methodology. Charlotte essentially blooms offscreen. Later, however, Charlotte’s ability to take Tina under her wing and provide her with the emotional backbone and stability that she (Charlotte) had lacked in the relationship with her own (eventually, and thankfully, deceased) mother—the Gladys Cooper character—show the possibilities of soulful growth thanks to, but clearly beyond, Dr. Jaquith’s techniques (whatever they were) and influence.

Overall, Now, Voyager remains one of the most astonishingly inspired and inspiring films ever made on the hope-filled, positive effects of psychiatry.

Share this:

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
• Click to print (Opens in new window)
• Psychoanalysis

Updates via Email

• Adolescence
• Alcohol and Substance Abuse
• Alexandra Styron
• Annual Reports
• Astor Services
• attachment theory
• Bipolar Disorder
• borderline personality
• Erich Fromm
• Featured Front Page
• Group Psychotherapy
• Individuals with Special Needs
• Mental Health Training
• Pearson Assessments
• Play Therapy
• Psychological Testing
• Psychopharmacology
• Psychotherapy
• Public Policy
• Religion and Mental Health
• Religion and Mental Health: The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James
• Schizophrenia
• Seizure Disorders and Epilepsy
• Special Needs
• Stefan de Shill
• Substance Abuse
• Suicide Prevention Initiatives
• Suicide Prevention International
• The Elderly
• Uncategorized
• William Styron
• Youth Violence

Box 3 Riverdale NY 10471-0003

• Tax Information

© 2024 American Mental Health Foundation

• Public cinema
• Film Series
• Collections
• Online Exhibits

Now Voyager

In this beautifully told and subtly subversive melodrama, Bette Davis plays Charlotte Vale, a damaged, neurotic, and introverted wallflower who voyages toward self-discovery and self-determination after being treated for a nervous breakdown. Freeing herself from her imperious mother's parochial influence, Charlotte finds love and adventure on the high seas--most specifically in the form of Paul Henreid's dashing, disarming, and unhappily married architect. Standing beside Rebecca , The Women and Dark Victory as the quintessential "women's film", Now Voyager offers a glimpse at a woman who transcends social conceptions of gender and propriety to make over her life exactly as she sees fit. And no one is better suited to this transformative role than Davis, who looks as stunning as a would-be spinster (with Frida Kahlo eyebrows) as she does a would-be socialite.

Part of film series

Melodrama Mondays

Screenings from this program september 2006, monday 18 september, all that heaven allows.

Far From Heaven

Monday 25 September

D.w. griffith.

October 2006

Monday 02 october, the jazz singer.

The Threepenny Opera

Monday 09 October

Stella dallas.

Monday 16 October

Street of shame.

A Ball at the Anjo House

Monday 23 October

November 2006

Monday 06 november, gone with the wind.

Monday 13 November

The best years of our lives.

Monday 20 November

Mother india.

Monday 27 November

Lawrence of arabia.

Current and upcoming film series

Chronicles of Changing Times. The Cinema of Edward Yang

NASA’s Voyager 1 Resumes Sending Engineering Updates to Earth

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is depicted in this artist’s concept traveling through interstellar space, or the space between stars, which it entered in 2012.

After some inventive sleuthing, the mission team can — for the first time in five months — check the health and status of the most distant human-made object in existence.

For the first time since November , NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is returning usable data about the health and status of its onboard engineering systems. The next step is to enable the spacecraft to begin returning science data again. The probe and its twin, Voyager 2, are the only spacecraft to ever fly in interstellar space (the space between stars).

Voyager 1 stopped sending readable science and engineering data back to Earth on Nov. 14, 2023, even though mission controllers could tell the spacecraft was still receiving their commands and otherwise operating normally. In March, the Voyager engineering team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California confirmed that the issue was tied to one of the spacecraft’s three onboard computers, called the flight data subsystem (FDS). The FDS is responsible for packaging the science and engineering data before it’s sent to Earth.

After receiving data about the health and status of Voyager 1 for the first time in five months, members of the Voyager flight team celebrate in a conference room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on April 20.

The team discovered that a single chip responsible for storing a portion of the FDS memory — including some of the FDS computer’s software code — isn’t working. The loss of that code rendered the science and engineering data unusable. Unable to repair the chip, the team decided to place the affected code elsewhere in the FDS memory. But no single location is large enough to hold the section of code in its entirety.

So they devised a plan to divide the affected code into sections and store those sections in different places in the FDS. To make this plan work, they also needed to adjust those code sections to ensure, for example, that they all still function as a whole. Any references to the location of that code in other parts of the FDS memory needed to be updated as well.

The team started by singling out the code responsible for packaging the spacecraft’s engineering data. They sent it to its new location in the FDS memory on April 18. A radio signal takes about 22 ½ hours to reach Voyager 1, which is over 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth, and another 22 ½ hours for a signal to come back to Earth. When the mission flight team heard back from the spacecraft on April 20, they saw that the modification worked: For the first time in five months, they have been able to check the health and status of the spacecraft.

Get the Latest News from the Final Frontier

During the coming weeks, the team will relocate and adjust the other affected portions of the FDS software. These include the portions that will start returning science data.

Voyager 2 continues to operate normally. Launched over 46 years ago , the twin Voyager spacecraft are the longest-running and most distant spacecraft in history. Before the start of their interstellar exploration, both probes flew by Saturn and Jupiter, and Voyager 2 flew by Uranus and Neptune.

Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages JPL for NASA.

News Media Contact

Calla Cofield

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

626-808-2469

[email protected]

Advertisement

NASA makes sense of Voyager 1's garbled signals from the edge of the solar system

Copy the code below to embed the wbur audio player on your site.

<iframe width="100%" height="124" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://player.wbur.org/hereandnow/2024/04/24/voyager-1-nasa-solar-system"></iframe>

• Nell Greenfieldboyce, NPR

Voyager 1 was originally launched in the 1970s, and the space probe is now sailing outside our solar system. A computer glitch scrambled its communications with Earth, leaving NASA in the dark.

Now, scientists have restored Voyager 1 and are making sense of its signals from interstellar space.

NPR science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce reports.

This segment aired on April 24, 2024.

More from Here & Now

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

Good news from Voyager 1, which is now out past the edge of the solar system

Nell Greenfieldboyce

In mid-November, Voyager 1 suffered a glitch, and it's messages stopped making sense. But the NASA probe is once again sending messages to Earth that make sense.

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

We recently shared news of some troubles being experienced by the Voyager 1 spacecraft. The historic NASA probe launched in 1977 to explore Jupiter and Saturn. Then it just kept going. It's now out beyond the edge of the solar system in the previously unexplored space between stars. And it still regularly talks to Earth. But in mid-November, it suffered a glitch, and its messages, well, they stopped making sense. NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce now has this update from the Voyager team with some good news.

NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE, BYLINE: A small dedicated team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has spent the last five months trying to figure out how to help Voyager 1, which wasn't easy because everything the poor spacecraft sent back was just incoherent.

LINDA SPILKER: That's what took the time and effort, figuring out exactly what was the problem.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Linda Spilker is the Voyager mission's project scientist. She says they finally traced the glitch to a failed memory chip in one of the spacecraft's primitive computers.

SPILKER: And so that meant we had to move all of those pieces of code to a different place in the memory, and that's what we did.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: But it was tricky. After all, the spacecraft is over 15 billion miles away. And its computers are so ancient that the team had no way to test that their fix would really work. Still, mission managers sent out the carefully crafted computer commands. Then they waited to receive Voyager 1's response. Spilker says everyone gathered together in a conference room early Saturday morning, nervously munching on peanuts.

SPILKER: In those couple of minutes, just before that signal was coming back - 6:41 A.M. - you could have heard a pin drop in that room.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: When the signal arrived, everything looked good, normal.

SPILKER: Everyone just broke out in cheers and smiles, and it was just a huge celebration. We were in such relief, as well. Voyager 1 was back.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Voyager 1's first messages contained information on the health and safety of its engineering systems, plus its precious antenna.

SPILKER: It looks like the spacecraft is in good shape, much like we left it back in mid-November.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Spilker says the plan now is to find some more free memory on a working chip and put in the software that will let Voyager 1 resume transmission of its science data, so that researchers will be able to follow along as the spacecraft travels through an interstellar stew of gas, dust and cosmic rays. And the team ultimately hopes to sustain Voyager 1 and its twin Voyager 2 for at least a few more years so that the Voyager mission will still be doing science on the 50th anniversary of its launch.

Nell Greenfieldboyce, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF ALEXANDER COURAGE AND GENE RODDENBERRY'S "THEME FROM 'STAR TREK'")

Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

share this!

April 22, 2024

This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

fact-checked

trusted source

NASA's Voyager 1 resumes sending engineering updates to Earth

For the first time since November, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft is returning usable data about the health and status of its onboard engineering systems. The next step is to enable the spacecraft to begin returning science data again. The probe and its twin, Voyager 2, are the only spacecraft to ever fly in interstellar space (the space between stars).

Voyager 1 stopped sending readable science and engineering data back to Earth on Nov. 14, 2023, even though mission controllers could tell the spacecraft was still receiving their commands and otherwise operating normally. In March, the Voyager engineering team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California confirmed that the issue was tied to one of the spacecraft's three onboard computers, called the flight data subsystem (FDS). The FDS is responsible for packaging the science and engineering data before it's sent to Earth.

The team discovered that a single chip responsible for storing a portion of the FDS memory—including some of the FDS computer's software code—isn't working. The loss of that code rendered the science and engineering data unusable. Unable to repair the chip, the team decided to place the affected code elsewhere in the FDS memory. But no single location is large enough to hold the section of code in its entirety.

So they devised a plan to divide the affected code into sections and store those sections in different places in the FDS. To make this plan work, they also needed to adjust those code sections to ensure, for example, that they all still function as a whole. Any references to the location of that code in other parts of the FDS memory needed to be updated as well.

The team started by singling out the code responsible for packaging the spacecraft's engineering data. They sent it to its new location in the FDS memory on April 18. A radio signal takes about 22.5 hours to reach Voyager 1, which is over 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth, and another 22.5 hours for a signal to come back to Earth. When the mission flight team heard back from the spacecraft on April 20, they saw that the modification had worked: For the first time in five months, they were able to check the health and status of the spacecraft.

During the coming weeks, the team will relocate and adjust the other affected portions of the FDS software. These include the portions that will start returning science data.

Voyager 2 continues to operate normally. Launched over 46 years ago, the twin Voyager spacecraft are the longest-running and most distant spacecraft in history. Before the start of their interstellar exploration, both probes flew by Saturn and Jupiter, and Voyager 2 flew by Uranus and Neptune.

Provided by NASA

Explore further

Feedback to editors

Global study shows a third more insects come out after dark

6 hours ago

Cicada-palooza! Billions of bugs to blanket America

8 hours ago

Getting dynamic information from static snapshots

9 hours ago

Ancient Maya blessed their ballcourts: Researchers find evidence of ceremonial offerings in Mexico

Optical barcodes expand range of high-resolution sensor

Apr 26, 2024

Ridesourcing platforms thrive on socio-economic inequality, say researchers

Did Vesuvius bury the home of the first Roman emperor?

Florida dolphin found with highly pathogenic avian flu: Report

A new way to study and help prevent landslides

New algorithm cuts through 'noisy' data to better predict tipping points

Relevant physicsforums posts, need help simplifying standard error formula for redshift, our beautiful universe - photos and videos.

Apr 25, 2024

Solar Activity and Space Weather Update thread

'devil' comet visible tonight 21.04.24, waves in space, documenting the setup of my new telescope.

Apr 24, 2024

More from Astronomy and Astrophysics

Related Stories

Engineers working to resolve issue with Voyager 1 computer

Dec 13, 2023

NASA hears signal from Voyager 2 spacecraft after mistakenly cutting contact

Aug 1, 2023

NASA listens for Voyager 2 spacecraft after wrong command cuts contact

Jul 31, 2023

NASA's Voyager team focuses on software patch, thrusters

Oct 20, 2023

NASA's Voyager will do more science with new power strategy

Apr 27, 2023

Engineers investigating NASA's Voyager 1 telemetry data

May 18, 2022

Recommended for you

Japan's moon lander wasn't built to survive a weekslong lunar night. It's still going after 3

Simulated microgravity affects sleep and physiological rhythms, study finds

Apr 22, 2024

'Tube map' around planets and moons made possible by knot theory

Apr 17, 2024

NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter team says goodbye—for now

NASA confirms mystery object that crashed through roof of Florida home came from space station

Apr 16, 2024

NASA is seeking a faster, cheaper way to bring Mars samples to Earth

Let us know if there is a problem with our content.

Use this form if you have come across a typo, inaccuracy or would like to send an edit request for the content on this page. For general inquiries, please use our contact form . For general feedback, use the public comments section below (please adhere to guidelines ).

Please select the most appropriate category to facilitate processing of your request

Thank you for taking time to provide your feedback to the editors.

Your feedback is important to us. However, we do not guarantee individual replies due to the high volume of messages.

E-mail the story

Your email address is used only to let the recipient know who sent the email. Neither your address nor the recipient's address will be used for any other purpose. The information you enter will appear in your e-mail message and is not retained by Phys.org in any form.

Newsletter sign up

Get weekly and/or daily updates delivered to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time and we'll never share your details to third parties.

More information Privacy policy

Donate and enjoy an ad-free experience

We keep our content available to everyone. Consider supporting Science X's mission by getting a premium account.

E-mail newsletter

NASA back in communication with Voyager I, now 15 billion miles away | The Sky Guy

After five months NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is once again returning usable data to Earth. Voyager 1 stopped sending usable data in November last year though NASA scientists knew it was receiving data from them.

The space craft is the most distant manmade object in space having entered interstellar space 22 years ago. Voyager 1, and its twin Voyager 2, were launched 46 years ago.

According to NASA: “In March, the Voyager engineering team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California confirmed that the issue was tied to one of the spacecraft’s three onboard computers, called the flight data subsystem (FDS). The FDS is responsible for packaging the science and engineering data before it’s sent to Earth.

“The team started by singling out the code responsible for packaging the spacecraft’s engineering data. They sent it to its new location in the FDS memory on April 18. A radio signal takes about 22 ½ hours to reach Voyager 1, which is over 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth, and another 22 ½ hours for a signal to come back to Earth.

When the mission flight team heard back from the spacecraft on April 20, they saw that the modification worked: For the first time in five months, they have been able to check the health and status of the spacecraft.”

Morning sky: Mercury, Mars and Saturn will be visible in the east before sunrise. Mercury rises around 6 a.m. and will enter the Sun’s glare by the end of the month. Mars rises around 5 a.m. in early May and around 4 a.m. at month’s end. Saturn rises around 4:30 a.m. at the beginning of May and around 2:30 a.m. by end of month. Watch the Moon pass a couple of bright stars and planets, see below for dates.

Evening sky: Brilliant Jupiter has entered the Sun’s glare. Watch the Moon pass a couple of bright stars and planets, see below for dates.

1st: Last quarter Moon.

3rd: Moon, Saturn, and Mars form a big line in the east in the early morning sky.

4th : Crescent Moon between Saturn and Mars in the early morning sky.

4th : Tallahassee Astronomical Society’s free planetarium show, “May Skies over Tallahassee,” at the Downtown Digital Dome Theatre and Planetarium at the Challenger Learning Center (not recommended for children under 5). Doors close at 10 a.m. sharp.

5th : Crescent Moon between Mars and Mercury in the early morning sky.

8th : New Moon.

12th: Crescent Moon near bright star Pollux in Gemini in the early evening sky.

15th: First quarter Moon near bright star Regulus in Leo in the evening sky.

18th: Moon occults bright star Beta Virginis beginning at 1:53 a.m. and ends at 2:50 a.m.

23rd: Full Moon near bright star Antares in Scorpius in the evening sky.

31st: Moon near Saturn in morning sky.

Check out TAS’s events calendar at tallystargazers.org .

Ken Kopczynski is a former president of the Tallahassee Astronomical Society, a local group of amateur astronomers .

For IEEE Members

Ieee spectrum, follow ieee spectrum, support ieee spectrum, enjoy more free content and benefits by creating an account, saving articles to read later requires an ieee spectrum account, the institute content is only available for members, downloading full pdf issues is exclusive for ieee members, downloading this e-book is exclusive for ieee members, access to spectrum 's digital edition is exclusive for ieee members, following topics is a feature exclusive for ieee members, adding your response to an article requires an ieee spectrum account, create an account to access more content and features on ieee spectrum , including the ability to save articles to read later, download spectrum collections, and participate in conversations with readers and editors. for more exclusive content and features, consider joining ieee ., join the world’s largest professional organization devoted to engineering and applied sciences and get access to all of spectrum’s articles, archives, pdf downloads, and other benefits. learn more →, join the world’s largest professional organization devoted to engineering and applied sciences and get access to this e-book plus all of ieee spectrum’s articles, archives, pdf downloads, and other benefits. learn more →, access thousands of articles — completely free, create an account and get exclusive content and features: save articles, download collections, and talk to tech insiders — all free for full access and benefits, join ieee as a paying member., 50 years later, this apollo-era antenna still talks to voyager 2, dss-43 is the only antenna that can communicate with the probe.

The Deep Space Station 43 radio antenna, located at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex in Australia, keeps open the line of communication between humans and probes during NASA missions.

For more than 50 years, Deep Space Station 43 has been an invaluable tool for space probes as they explore our solar system and push into the beyond. The DSS-43 radio antenna, located at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex , near Canberra, Australia, keeps open the line of communication between humans and probes during NASA missions.

Today more than 40 percent of all data retrieved by celestial explorers, including Voyagers , New Horizons , and the Mars Curiosity rover , comes through DSS-43.

“As Australia’s largest antenna, DSS-43 has provided two-way communication with dozens of robotic spacecraft,” IEEE President-Elect Kathleen Kramer said during a ceremony where the antenna was recognized as an IEEE Milestone . It has supported missions, Kramer noted, “from the Apollo program and NASA’s Mars exploration rovers such as Spirit and Opportunity to the Voyagers’ grand tour of the solar system.

“In fact,” she said, “it is the only antenna remaining on Earth capable of communicating with Voyager 2 .”

Why NASA needed DSS-43

Maintaining two-way contact with spacecraft hurtling billions of kilometers away across the solar system is no mean feat. Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory , in Pasadena, Calif., knew that communication with distant space probes would require a dish antenna with unprecedented accuracy. In 1964 they built DSS-42—DSS-43’s predecessor—to support NASA’s Mariner 4 spacecraft as it performed the first-ever successful flyby of Mars in July 1965. The antenna had a 26-meter-diameter dish. Along with two other antennas at JPL and in Spain, DSS-42 obtained the first close-up images of Mars. DSS-42 was retired in 2000.

NASA engineers predicted that to carry out missions beyond Mars, the space agency needed more sensitive antennas. So in 1969 they began work on DSS-43, which has a 64-meter-diameter dish.

DSS-43 was brought online in December 1972—just in time to receive video and audio transmissions sent by Apollo 17 from the surface of the moon. It had greater reach and sensitivity than DSS-42 even after 42’s dish was upgraded in the early 1980s.

The gap between the two antennas’ capabilities widened in 1987, when DSS-43 was equipped with a 70-meter dish in anticipation of Voyager 2’s 1989 encounter with the planet Neptune.

DSS-43 has been indispensable in maintaining contact with the deep-space probe ever since.

The dish’s size isn’t its only remarkable feature. The dish’s manufacturer took great pains to ensure that its surface had no bumps or rough spots. The smoother the dish surface, the better it is at focusing incident waves onto the signal detector so there’s a higher signal-to-noise ratio.

DSS-43 boasts a pointing accuracy of 0.005 degrees (18 arc seconds)—which is important for ensuring that it is pointed directly at the receiver on a distant spacecraft. Voyager 2 broadcasts using a 23-watt radio. But by the time the signals traverse the multibillion-kilometer distance from the heliopause to Earth, their power has faded to a level 20 billion times weaker than what is needed to run a digital watch. Capturing every bit of the incident signals is crucial to gathering useful information from the transmissions.

The antenna has a transmitter capable of 400 kilowatts, with a beam width of 0.0038 degrees. Without the 1987 upgrade, signals sent from DSS-43 to a spacecraft venturing outside the solar system likely never would reach their target.

NASA’s Deep Space Network

The Canberra Deep Space Complex, where DSS-43 resides, is one of three such tracking stations operated by JPL. The other two are DSS-11 at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex near Barstow, Calif., and DSS-63 at the Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex in Robledo de Chavela, Spain. Together, the facilities make up the Deep Space Network, which is the most sensitive scientific telecommunications system on the planet, according to NASA. At any given time, the network is tracking dozens of spacecraft carrying out scientific missions. The three facilities are spaced about 120 degrees longitude apart. The strategic placement ensures that as the Earth rotates, at least one of the antennas has a line of sight to an object being tracked, at least for those close to the plane of the solar system.

But DSS-43 is the only member of the trio that can maintain contact with Voyager 2 . Ever since its flyby of Neptune’s moon Triton in 1989, Voyager 2 has been on a trajectory below the plane of the planets, so that it no longer has a line of sight with any radio antennas in the Earth’s Northern Hemisphere.

To ensure that DSS-43 can still place the longest of long-distance calls, the antenna underwent a round of updates in 2020. A new X-band cone was installed. DSS-43 transmits radio signals in the X (8 to 12 gigahertz) and S (2 to 4 GHz) bands; it can receive signals in the X, S, L (1 to 2 GHz), and K (12 to 40 GHz) bands. The dish’s pointing accuracy also was tested and recertified.

Once the updates were completed, test commands were sent to Voyager 2. After about 37 hours, DSS-43 received a response from the space probe confirming it had received the call, and it executed the test commands with no issues.

DSS-43 is still relaying signals between Earth and Voyager 2, which passed the heliopause in 2018 and is now some 20 billion km from Earth.

Other important missions

DSS-43 has played a vital role in missions closer to Earth as well, including NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission. When the space agency sent Curiosity , a golf cart–size rover, to explore the Gale crater and Mount Sharp on Mars in 2011, DSS-43 tracked Curiosity as it made its nail-biting seven-minute descent into Mars’s atmosphere. It took roughly 20 minutes for radio signals to traverse the 320-million km distance between Mars and Earth, and then DSS-43 delivered the good news: The rover had landed safely and was operational.

“NASA plans to send future generations of astronauts from the Moon to Mars, and DSS-43 will play an important role as part of NASA’s Deep Space Network,” says Ambarish Natu , an IEEE senior member who is a past chair of the IEEE Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Section.

DSS-43 was honored with an IEEE Milestone in March during a ceremony held at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex.

“This is the second IEEE Milestone recognition given in Australia, and the first for ACT,” Lance Fung , IEEE Region 10 director, said during the ceremony. A plaque recognizing the technology is now displayed at the complex. It reads:

First operational in 1972 and later upgraded in 1987, Deep Space Station 43 (DSS-43) is a steerable parabolic antenna that supported the Apollo 17 lunar mission, Viking Mars landers, Pioneer and Mariner planetary probes, and Voyager’s encounters with Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Planning for many robotic and human missions to explore the solar system and beyond has included DSS-43 for critical communications and tracking in NASA’s Deep Space Network.

Administered by the IEEE History Center and supported by donors, the Milestone program recognizes outstanding technical developments around the world. The IEEE Australian Capital Territory Section sponsored the nomination.

• Ethernet is Still Going Strong After 50 Years ›
• The Story Behind Pixar’s RenderMan CGI Software ›
• Deep Space Station 43 - Canberra Deep Space Communication ... ›

Willie Jones is an associate editor at IEEE Spectrum . In addition to editing and planning daily coverage, he manages several of Spectrum 's newsletters and contributes regularly to the monthly Big Picture section that appears in the print edition.

Will Human Soldiers Ever Trust Their Robot Comrades?

Video friday: racer heavy, as ukraine builds new reactors, renewables beckon, more from the institute, this ieee society’s secret to boosting student membership, get to know the ieee board of directors, the legacy of the datapoint 2200 microcomputer, enhance your tech and business skills during ieee education week, how engineers at digital equipment corp. saved ethernet.

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Voyager 1 transmitting data again after Nasa remotely fixes 46-year-old probe

Engineers spent months working to repair link with Earth’s most distant spacecraft, says space agency

Earth’s most distant spacecraft, Voyager 1, has started communicating properly again with Nasa after engineers worked for months to remotely fix the 46-year-old probe.

Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which makes and operates the agency’s robotic spacecraft, said in December that the probe – more than 15bn miles (24bn kilometres) away – was sending gibberish code back to Earth.

In an update released on Monday , JPL announced the mission team had managed “after some inventive sleuthing” to receive usable data about the health and status of Voyager 1’s engineering systems. “The next step is to enable the spacecraft to begin returning science data again,” JPL said. Despite the fault, Voyager 1 had operated normally throughout, it added.

Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 was designed with the primary goal of conducting close-up studies of Jupiter and Saturn in a five-year mission. However, its journey continued and the spacecraft is now approaching a half-century in operation.

Voyager 1 crossed into interstellar space in August 2012, making it the first human-made object to venture out of the solar system. It is currently travelling at 37,800mph (60,821km/h).

Hi, it's me. - V1 https://t.co/jgGFBfxIOe — NASA Voyager (@NASAVoyager) April 22, 2024

The recent problem was related to one of the spacecraft’s three onboard computers, which are responsible for packaging the science and engineering data before it is sent to Earth. Unable to repair a broken chip, the JPL team decided to move the corrupted code elsewhere, a tricky job considering the old technology.

The computers on Voyager 1 and its sister probe, Voyager 2, have less than 70 kilobytes of memory in total – the equivalent of a low-resolution computer image. They use old-fashioned digital tape to record data.

The fix was transmitted from Earth on 18 April but it took two days to assess if it had been successful as a radio signal takes about 22 and a half hours to reach Voyager 1 and another 22 and a half hours for a response to come back to Earth. “When the mission flight team heard back from the spacecraft on 20 April, they saw that the modification worked,” JPL said.

Alongside its announcement, JPL posted a photo of members of the Voyager flight team cheering and clapping in a conference room after receiving usable data again, with laptops, notebooks and doughnuts on the table in front of them.

The Retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who flew two space shuttle missions and acted as commander of the International Space Station, compared the JPL mission to long-distance maintenance on a vintage car.

“Imagine a computer chip fails in your 1977 vehicle. Now imagine it’s in interstellar space, 15bn miles away,” Hadfield wrote on X . “Nasa’s Voyager probe just got fixed by this team of brilliant software mechanics.

Voyager 1 and 2 have made numerous scientific discoveries , including taking detailed recordings of Saturn and revealing that Jupiter also has rings, as well as active volcanism on one of its moons, Io. The probes later discovered 23 new moons around the outer planets.

As their trajectory takes them so far from the sun, the Voyager probes are unable to use solar panels, instead converting the heat produced from the natural radioactive decay of plutonium into electricity to power the spacecraft’s systems.

Nasa hopes to continue to collect data from the two Voyager spacecraft for several more years but engineers expect the probes will be too far out of range to communicate in about a decade, depending on how much power they can generate. Voyager 2 is slightly behind its twin and is moving slightly slower.

In roughly 40,000 years, the probes will pass relatively close, in astronomical terms, to two stars. Voyager 1 will come within 1.7 light years of a star in the constellation Ursa Minor, while Voyager 2 will come within a similar distance of a star called Ross 248 in the constellation of Andromeda.

More on this story

Cosmic cleaners: the scientists scouring English cathedral roofs for space dust

Russia acknowledges continuing air leak from its segment of space station

Uncontrolled European satellite falls to Earth after 30 years in orbit

Cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko sets world record for most time spent in space

‘Old smokers’: astronomers discover giant ancient stars in Milky Way

Nasa postpones plans to send humans to moon

What happened to the Peregrine lander and what does it mean for moon missions?

Peregrine 1 has ‘no chance’ of landing on moon due to fuel leak

Most viewed.