NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft recovering from glitch

Jan. 29 (UPI) -- The Voyager 2 spacecraft suffered a glitch over the weekend, according to a news release from NASA, but the probe is now recovering and will soon resume scientific activities.

"Engineers for NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft are working to return the mission to normal operating conditions after one of the spacecraft's autonomous fault protection routines was triggered," the space agency wrote in an update.

On Jan. 25, Voyager 2 failed to make a scheduled 360 degree rotation, a maneuver that helps the probe calibrate its magnetic field instrument. The failure caused a pair of software programs that consume a lot of energy to run at the same time, overdrawing the probe's power supply.

Thankfully, Voyager 2's software was designed to accommodate such a failure. The probe's fault protection system triggered the shutoff of the spacecraft's scientific instruments in order to conserve power.

On Tuesday, engineers successfully powered off one of the high-energy programs and turned back on the scientific instruments. However, the probe's suite of science instruments aren't yet recording data.

"The team is now reviewing the status of the rest of the spacecraft and working on returning it to normal operations," NASA said.

Last fall, scientists confirmed that Voyager 2 had broken through the wall of hydrogen at the edge of the solar system and was speeding through interstellar space. At last calculation, the probe was 119.7 astronomical units from the sun, or more than 11 billion miles from the center of the solar system.

Voyager 2's predecessor, Voyager 1, crossed the edge of the solar system in 2012.

Both Voyager probes were launched in 1977. During their epic journeys through the solar system, the two spacecraft studied a variety of planetary bodies. Voyager 1 conducted flybys of Jupiter and Saturn, while Voyager 2 executed close encounters with Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.