NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Fixing a spacecraft is hard enough on Earth – but the Voyager team has fixed a spacecraft 15 billion miles away (24 billion km) in interstellar space... again! Voyager 1 stopped sending science and engineering data to Earth on November 14, 2023, even though mission controllers could tell the spacecraft was still receiving their commands and operating normally. Check out the team's timeline to get the 46-year-old spacecraft back on track: ⚫️ March 2024: The Voyager engineering team at JPL confirmed that the issue was tied to a small portion of corrupted memory in one of the spacecraft’s three onboard computers, called the flight data subsystem (FDS), which is responsible for packaging the science and engineering data before it’s sent to Earth. 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 they all still functioned. Any references to the location of that code in other parts of the FDS memory had to also be updated. ⚫️ April 18, 2024: The team sent commands to the new code location in the FDS memory. ⚫️ April 20, 2024: The mission flight team heard back from the spacecraft and saw that the modification worked. For the first time in five months, they were able to get the spacecraft to return usable engineering data about the health and status of its onboard systems, including the science instruments. ⚫️ May 17, 2024: The team sent commands that enabled the spacecraft to resume sending science data to Earth from the plasma wave subsystem and magnetometer instruments, two of the four science instruments on the spacecraft. ⚫️ Today: Now, all four of the science instruments are returning usable science data. ⚫️ Next up: While Voyager 1 is back to doing science, additional minor work is needed to clean up the issue's effects, including resynchronizing timekeeping software in the spacecraft's three onboard computers so they can execute commands correctly. The team also will perform maintenance on the digital tape recorder, which records some data for the plasma wave instrument sent back to Earth twice yearly. (Most of the Voyagers' science data is sent directly to Earth and not recorded).

How do you ship a spacecraft? Very carefully. 😉 NASA’s Europa Clipper Mission’s lead engineer explains how the team kept the spacecraft safe on its long journey from JPL in Southern California to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Watch as they nestled the 7,000-pound spacecraft into a shipping container and then sent it off on a United States Air Force C-17 Globemaster III. The shipment also included ground support equipment that filled 14 semi-trucks!

Ad astra. ✨ Ed Stone, former director of JPL and longtime Voyager project scientist, has passed away. He had the distinction of being one of the few scientists involved with both the mission that has come closest to the Sun, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, and the one that has traveled farthest from it, Voyager. He will forever be an inspiration to all who #DareMightyThings. https://lnkd.in/grXTDhCM

Did you know that all three of the Deep Space Network facilities around the world are operated by JPL? The antennae pictured here are located at the DSN complex in Canberra, Australia, where JPL Director Laurie Leshin recently visited along with Director for the Interplanetary Network Suzanne Dodd, DSN Deputy Project Manager Amy Smith, and CSIRO Station Director Kevin Ferguson. NASA's international array of giant radio antennas, the DSN consists of three facilities spaced equidistant from each other around the globe – near Canberra, Australia; Goldstone, California; and Madrid, Spain. Together, the network supports interplanetary spacecraft missions, plus a few that orbit Earth.

We’re excited to welcome a new chief scientist to our JPL universe – distinguished planetary scientist and astrophysicist Jonathan Lunine! As chief scientist, Lunine will guide the laboratory’s scientific research and development efforts, drive innovation across JPL’s missions and programs, and enhance collaborations with NASA Headquarters, NASA centers, Caltech, academia, the science community, government agencies, and industry partners. In addition, he will oversee the formulation of JPL’s scientific policies and priorities and guide the integrity of missions that JPL manages for NASA. A Caltech alumnus, Lunine has performed pioneering research on the formation and evolution of planetary systems, the nature of planetary interiors and atmospheres, and where environments suited for life might exist in the solar system and beyond. He has collaborated with JPL on numerous missions – from Voyager to Cassini to Europa Clipper. His deep expertise will help JPL continue to seek answers to fundamental questions that crosscut the diverse science portfolio of the laboratory. He will officially assume his role of chief scientist on Aug. 16. https://lnkd.in/gYqEvdvT

Congrats to the PREFIRE team on a second and final successful launch! The next 30 days will be a checkout period, where engineers and scientists will make sure both CubeSats are operating normally. Then, PREFIRE will have a prime mission of 10 months gathering data from the polar regions of our planet. More on the launch and the mission: https://lnkd.in/gPgnMDSr

“What we want to do is make space for, and create, a welcoming environment for all of these identities around Asia that make us realize we all have a lot more in common than we realize, and a lot more to learn as well.” - Shayena Khandker, chair of JPL’s Asian American Council Established in 1994, AAC celebrates Asian American employees’ cultural heritage, fosters members’ personal and leadership development, and advocates for multicultural inclusion within the JPL and Caltech community. Learn more about one of our longest-running ERGs, which today boasts more than 700 members and allies across Lab: https://bit.ly/4bzPgku #LifeAtJPL #NASAJPL #DareMightyThings #AANHPIHeritageMonth

Hello, June stargazers ✨ This month, Saturn and Mars meet up with the Moon, and Jupiter appears in the skies at dawn. Plus, learn how you can tell the difference between planets, stars, and satellites. More skywatching tips: go.nasa.gov/37ePy0B

We BELIEVE in daring mighty things together. It takes a lot of teamwork to prepare a spacecraft, and before Europa Clipper was packed up for its journey to NASA Kennedy, we had a special visit by a special “coach.” #GoEuropaClipper

Throughout this past month, our Asian American Council employee resource group held events in celebration of Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. The group kicked off the month with a gathering at Caltech, where colleagues enjoyed food, games, and performances. Another highlight was a lecture and workshop on Islamic geometric art, followed by a walking tour of Islamic-inspired art in Pasadena. Other events included a NASA agency-wide panel featuring astronaut Raja Chari, as well as talks with Asian American leaders, artists, and acclaimed writer Ted Chiang. #LifeAtJPL #NASAJPL #DareMightyThings #AANHPIHeritageMonth