The OSIRIS-APEX spacecraft contacted Earth after a two-month gap. Last December, NASA engineers covered one of the probe’s two solar panels, limiting its ability to communicate with Earth to prevent science instruments from overheating during the probe’s approach to the Sun. This gravity maneuver, the first of seven planned maneuvers, was supposed to be performed for the device’s upcoming encounter with the asteroid Apophis.

NASA said the probe was working properly, but a full assessment of its condition had not yet been made, so it was not yet known whether intense solar activity had damaged the probe or its instruments.

Let me remind you that OSIRIS-APEX began its journey as part of the OSIRIS-REx mission, whose purpose is to collect samples from the asteroid Bennu. With enough fuel remaining after the Bennu mission, the probe was sent on a long journey towards the asteroid Apophis, which should reach it in April 2029.