NASA's Voyager 1 Probe Sending Data Again Nearly 50 Years After Launch

A glitch aboard Voyager 1 prevented it from communicating with NASA for about a month. (Credit: NASA)

The Voyager 1 spacecraft, launched nearly 50 years ago and billions of miles out in space, began communicating with NASA again after a glitch prevented it from sending information for about a month.

Voyager 1, which has been exploring the solar system since 1977, suddenly shut down its primary radio, called an X-band transmitter, and activated a weaker S-band transmitter that hadn't been used since 1981, NASA said.