A spacecraft that blasted off from Earth on 20 August 1977 has been repaired via remote control – from 11 billion miles away.

The Voyager 2 space probe shut down its instruments after two systems remained on, draining power. An automatic system onboard caused a shutdown of science instruments.

Launched in 1977, Voyager 2 and its sibling Voyager 1 are both in interstellar space, making them the most distant human-made objects in the solar system.

It happened after the spacecraft failed to execute a spin maneuver, Space.com reported.

Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California communicated with the spacecraft and were able to bring systems back online by 5 February.

NASA said: “Analysis of the telemetry from the spacecraft indicated that an unexplained delay in the onboard execution of the maneuver commands inadvertently left two systems that consume relatively high levels of power operating at the same time.

Read more: yahoo