--- title: NASA Connects with Spacecraft After 2-Year Silence description: NASA reestablished contact with its STEREO-B spacecraft on Sunday, almost two years after losing communication with it Oct. 1, 2014 canonical: https://time.com/4462654/nasa-spacecraft-contact-stereo-b/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-23T14:20:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T00:08:40.355Z article:section: Science og:title: NASA Reestablishes Contact with Spacecraft After 2-Year Silence og:description: Scientists lost contact with the spacecraft on Oct. 1, 2014 og:url: https://time.com/4462654/nasa-spacecraft-contact-stereo-b/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e8314114712ea02/6988a34e656a3f3088bccd5e/nasa-spacecraft-lost-stereo-b.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: NASA reestablished contact with sun-watching STEREO mission og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: NASA Reestablishes Contact with Spacecraft After 2-Year Silence twitter:description: Scientists lost contact with the spacecraft on Oct. 1, 2014 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e8314114712ea02/6988a34e656a3f3088bccd5e/nasa-spacecraft-lost-stereo-b.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # NASA Reestablishes Contact with Spacecraft After 2-Year Silence  by [Katie Reilly](/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Aug 23, 2016 2:20 PM CUT  An undated handout picture made available by NASA on Aug. 23, 2016 shows an artist illustration of one of the two STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) spacecraft that have been studying the sun since 2006. An undated handout picture made available by NASA on Aug. 23, 2016 shows an artist illustration of one of the two STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) spacecraft that have been studying the sun since 2006.NASA/EPA  by [Katie Reilly](/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Aug 23, 2016 2:20 PM CUT NASA [reestablished contact with its STEREO-B spacecraft](http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/nasa-establishes-contact-with-stereo-mission "undefined") on Sunday, almost two years after losing communication with it Oct. 1, 2014. The spacecraft is part of NASA’s [Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO)](http://www.nasa.gov/mission%5Fpages/stereo/main/index.html "undefined"), which aims to study the sun and space weather. NASA used its Deep Space Network, which tracks and communicates with missions throughout space, to receive a signal from STEREO-B. Scientists lost contact with it after intentionally resetting the spacecraft in 2014 in order to angle its antenna away from the sun because it risked being overheated, [the Verge reported](http://www.theverge.com/2016/8/22/12589406/nasa-stereo-b-spacecraft-contact-deep-space-network "undefined"). The STEREO-A spacecraft continues to function normally, NASA said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4462654/nasa-spacecraft-contact-stereo-b/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4462654/nasa-spacecraft-contact-stereo-b/"},"headline":"NASA Reestablishes Contact with Spacecraft After 2-Year Silence","datePublished":"2016-08-23T14:20:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T00:08:40.355Z","description":"Scientists lost contact with the spacecraft on Oct. 1, 2014","url":"https://time.com/4462654/nasa-spacecraft-contact-stereo-b/","keywords":["Space","NASA"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e8314114712ea02/6988a34e656a3f3088bccd5e/nasa-spacecraft-lost-stereo-b.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5e8314114712ea02/6988a34e656a3f3088bccd5e/nasa-spacecraft-lost-stereo-b.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"NASA reestablished contact with sun-watching STEREO mission","caption":"An undated handout picture made available by NASA on Aug. 23, 2016 shows an artist illustration of one of the two STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) spacecraft that have been studying the sun since 2006.","creditText":"NASA/EPA","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4462654/nasa-spacecraft-contact-stereo-b/","name":"NASA Reestablishes Contact with Spacecraft After 2-Year Silence"}}]}] ```