Voyager 1 starts transmitting useable data again for first time in five months - after appearing to have broken down nearly 50 years into its outer space journey

The decades-old NASA Voyager 1 spacecraft has begun sending readable communications again after months of transmitting gibberish. Source: NASA The account also shared a tweet from the official account for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory showing an image of the elated scientists clapping with joy at Voyager 1's latest data set. Pictured, Saturn taken by the craft in November 1980 The decades-old NASA Voyager 1 spacecraft has begun sending readable communications again after months of transmitting gibberish. As part of NASA's mission in the summer of 1977, two spacecraft, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 - identical in every detail - were launched within 15 days of each other This colour picture was acquired by Voyager 1 during its approach of Ganymede, the largest and most massive moon of Jupiter and in the solar system The radio antenna, protruding from the central circular dish like the antenna on a robotic insect, is equally archaic, emitting as many watts as a refrigerator lightbulb NASA archival image: Engineers working on vibration acoustics and pyro shock testing of NASA's Voyager 1, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, November 18, 1976 Both Voyagers launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida in 1977 – with Voyager 2 departing a month earlier than 1. Jupiter, taken from Voyager 1 at around 12 million miles away in 1979 An annotated image showing the various parts and instruments of NASA's Voyager space probe design.