NASA is hunting deep space for Voyager 2 after flight controllers accidentally sent a wrong command that cut contact with the spacecraft 12 billion miles away

NASA is hunting deep space for Voyager 2 after flight controllers accidentally sent a wrong command that cut contact with the spacecraft 12 billion miles away, per Bloomberg.

Voyager 2, hurtling deeper into interstellar space, has lost communication due to a wrong command mistakenly sent by flight controllers over a week ago, causing a slight 2% tilt in its antenna away from Earth. Despite the odds, NASA's massive dish antenna in Canberra, Australia, is diligently scanning for any stray signals from the distant spacecraft, which is currently more than 12 billion miles (19 billion kilometers) away. It takes more than 18 hours for signals to travel from that distance to Earth.

In the coming week, NASA's Deep Space Network, with the Canberra antenna, plans to send the correct command towards Voyager 2's location, hoping it will hit the mark and restore communication. If this attempt fails, officials will have to wait until October for an automatic spacecraft reset, which is expected to reestablish communication. Voyager 2 was launched in 1977, exploring the outer planets, shortly before its identical twin, Voyager 1.