NASA restores contact with NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft

On Wednesday, NASA's Deep Space Network sent a new command in hopes of re-pointing the antenna, using the highest powered transmitter at the huge radio dish antenna in Australia. Voyager 2's antenna needed to be shifted a mere two per cent.

It took more than 18 hours for the command to reach Voyager 2 - more than 19 billion kilometres away - and another 18 hours to hear back. 

The long shot paid off. On Friday, the spacecraft started returning data again, according to officials at California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Voyager 2 has been hurtling through space since its launch in 1977 to explore the outer solar system. Launched two weeks later, its twin Voyager 1 is now the most distant spacecraft - 24 billion kilometres away - and still in contact.