The spacecraft was still following commands perfectly and pointing its antenna exactly where it should. But the data it was sending back about its own systems didn't make any sense.
A 45-Year-Old Explorer
Voyager 1, launched in 1977, was roughly 14.5 billion miles from Earth as of 2022 — beyond the edge of our solar system and traveling through interstellar space, farther than any human-made object has ever traveled.
The Anomaly
In May 2022, NASA announced that Voyager 1's attitude articulation and control system (AACS) — responsible for keeping the spacecraft oriented and its antenna pointed at Earth — had begun returning telemetry data that didn't reflect any state the system could actually be in. Despite this, the spacecraft continued to receive and execute commands normally, and its antenna remained accurately pointed at Earth, meaning the core systems appeared to be functioning even though the diagnostic data reporting on them didn't make sense.
A Difficult Diagnosis
Because of Voyager 1's extreme distance, a single message and response takes about two days round-trip, making troubleshooting a slow process. NASA engineers said they were working to determine whether the faulty data originated in the AACS itself or in another system responsible for relaying telemetry.
Why This Isn't Entirely Surprising
Suzanne Dodd, project manager for the Voyager missions, noted that unexpected issues are common at this stage of the mission, given the spacecraft's age and the extreme, previously unencountered radiation environment of interstellar space. Voyager 1 had faced and worked around technical issues before, including switching to backup thrusters in 2017 that hadn't been used in nearly four decades.
Editorial Note on Current Status
This entry reflects reporting from May 2022, when the specific cause remained under investigation. Please confirm and add the eventual explanation and resolution NASA engineers identified before publishing, as this is likely to have been resolved or explained since.
FAQ
How far away is Voyager 1?
As of 2022, it was roughly 14.5 billion miles from Earth, in interstellar space.
Was Voyager 1 in danger of failing?
At the time, NASA said the spacecraft was otherwise functioning normally and continuing to send science data despite the telemetry anomaly.
What caused the strange data?
This should be verified against later reporting — the cause had not been confirmed as of the information available here.