After 43 years of interstellar travel, Voyager 2 is currently more than 11 billion kilometres from Earth. However, occasionally something goes wrong.For instance, the robotic probe shut down part of its capabilities at the end of January after an error forced it to perform a regular somersault to send scientific data back to Earth.According to Suzanne Dodd, the project manager for the Voyager spacecraft at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, "everyone was very concerned about recovering the spacecraft."

The mission's management on our planet are aware of what to do in this situation. At their current distance, talking to Voyager 2 takes roughly a day and a half, but they transmitted directives to get it back to regular operation NASA keeps in touch with an armada of spacecraft in deep space on any given day. The strongest radio antennae in the entire world are needed for these long distance communications. Fortunately, NASA has its own phone system, called the Deep Space Network (DSN).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             One of the most important resources for space exploration is the DSN. It has one station in the United States, in Goldstone, California, and two abroad, in Madrid and Canberra, Australia. Without it, spacecraft beyond the moon couldn't connect with Earth; it has been in use continuously for 57 years. It is utilised by the European Space Agency, the Japanese, Indian, and soon the United Arab Emirates space programmes in addition to NASA.Three 34-meter and one 70-meter antennas are installed on each station on Earth. By visiting NASA's DSN Now website, you can see which spacecraft are communicating with Earth in real time and how often they switch between them depending on where a spacecraft is in relation to our planet.Voyager 2 can communicate with only one station and one antenna in the network due to its trajectory in relation to Earth: Canberra's 70-meter dish, also known as DSS 43. Additionally, that dish will need to be upgraded for the forthcoming Mars missions, which will result in a shutdown and brief disassembly.

          Ms. Dodd, who is also the director of the team in charge of overseeing the Deep Space Network for NASA, said, "Frankly, there's never a good time to take down an asset and never a good time to fix the potholes in the road." But you already know that you'll do the task at the airport rather than during the holiday bustle. You'll carry it out when it's less crowded.

As a "geriatric" spacecraft, Voyager 2, it is dangerous to lose communication with it for an extended period of time. Additionally, communication with the probe, which is currently in what is thought of as interstellar space, will be difficult for the next 11 months.

According to Glen Nagle, NASA's outreach and administration director for the station in Australia, "there is risk in this business as there is in anything in spaceflight." It's a significant adjustment and the longest downtime the dish has experienced in the 18 years I've been here.

Keeping Voyager 2's communication antenna pointing towards Earth is one of the biggest hazards. The probe fires its thrusters more than a dozen times every day to stay aligned in order to accomplish this. The mission's managers must have faith in the