Voyager 1 made contact with Earth using a transmitter that hadn't been utilized since 1981.

In mid-October, NASA's Deep Space Network was unable to receive a signal from the "Voyager-1" spacecraft, which is located nearly 25 billion kilometers away from our planet.

Typically, the probe maintains communication with its home planet using an X-band transmitter, named for the frequency it operates on. However, "Voyager" did not respond to the command sent from Earth.

As a result, engineers decided to switch to the second, backup, S-band transmitter. This one consumes less power but has not been used for communication with Earth since 1981. Additionally, this transmitter operates on a different frequency than the X-band transmitter, and its signal is significantly weaker.

Nasa specialists were uncertain about the functionality of the S-band transmitter; nevertheless, the probe was able to switch to it and restore communication with NASA's Deep Space Network.