Even Rocket Scientists Make Mistakes: The Human Element in Space Exploration

In the news: “NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft after mistake led to weeks of silence”

From the article:

“Hurtling ever deeper into interstellar space billions of miles away, Voyager 2 stopped communicating two weeks ago. Controllers sent the wrong command to the 46-year-old spacecraft and tilted its antenna away from Earth.”

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NASA restores contact with Voyager 2 spacecraft after mistake led to weeks of silence

NASA was able to restore the connection by sending a new command. But it sounded like they weren’t certain that was going to work.

I haven’t found any details about how or why the wrong command was sent. I hope NASA focuses on learning from the mistake instead of punishing the controller(s) for human error.