NASA connected with the spacecraft that had lost its signal two years ago

In 2014, NASA lost contact with a spacecraft. It seemed like it was forever gone, suddenly on Sunday night (August 21), NASA caught its signal.

In October 2006, NASA launched the STEREO twin train (STERO-B and STERO-A) , abbreviated by Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory, to the universe to observe the sun from two sides at the same time.

Picture 1 of NASA connected with the spacecraft that had lost its signal two years ago
STEREO-A and STEREO-B spacecraft perform the task of studying the sun.

This activity by NASA aims to study coronal mass ejections (CME) .

STEREO - A will rotate around the sun in front of the Earth, while the STERO - B train will turn behind. The two ships operating at both the front and rear will provide scientists with an overall first view of the sun.

However, after 8 years, on October 1, 2014, NASA lost contact with STERO-B. For more than 22 months, the team tried to find ways to contact the STERO-B spacecraft. According to NASA, communications from the STERO-B spacecraft may be blocked from the sun's interference.

Picture 2 of NASA connected with the spacecraft that had lost its signal two years ago
On August 23, NASA officially announced the capture of signals with the STERO-B spacecraft.

Scientists at NASA used Deep Space Network (DSN) to search for STERO-B. And finally, on August 21, NASA caught its signal. The signal sent down was monitored for several hours to determine the behavior of this ship, then the high voltage generator was supported to save battery.

" The STEREO Missions Operations team has planned recovery to assess the status of the ship, re-establish control and evaluation of all systems and auxiliary tools , " said Karen C Fox, spokesman for NASA said.

Picture 3 of NASA connected with the spacecraft that had lost its signal two years ago
Location of STEREO-A (red) and STEREO-B (blue).

The two spacecraft were intended to operate until 2008, but it has been in existence for more than 10 years now. This spacecraft is designed to communicate with the Earth daily and they will restart automatically if not contacted after 72 hours.