For two tense weeks in July 2023, NASA feared humanity’s longest-running spacecraft might be lost forever. When a misdirected command on July 21 caused Voyager 2’s antenna to point just two degrees off target, communication with the most distant probe ever built was instantly severed. More than 12.3 billion miles from Earth, Voyager 2 fell silent. For NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the prospect of losing this irreplaceable spacecraft felt entirely real, making what ought to have been a routine update one of the most nerve-wracking episodes in Voyager’s long career.