NASA has finally got back in contact with the Voyager 2 probe, which has been traveling through space since August 1977.

Engineers sent a series of commands to Voyager 2 via a huge radio antenna, which had been offline for repairs and upgrades since March.

Voyager 2 received the ‘call’ and executed the commands, despite being more than 11.6 billion miles (18.8 billion kilometers) from Earth.

It is so far away that engineers had to wait nearly 35 hours for a reply.

“What makes this task unique is that we’re doing work at all levels of the antenna, from the pedestal at ground level all the way up to the feedcones at the center of the dish that extend above the rim,” said Brad Arnold, the DSN project manager at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Lab.

“This test communication with Voyager 2 definitely tells us that things are on track with the work we’re doing.”

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Among the upgrades to the transmission dish, called DSS43 and located in Australia, are two new radio transmitters.

The transmitters have not been replaced in over 47 years, but it is expected that it will now come back online in February 2021.

Read more: Independent