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NASA has re-established contact with the space probe Pioneer 10, currently drifting beyond the Solar System, 11.9 billion kilometres from Earth. The probe completed its formal scientific mission to study interplanetary radiation in 1997, and fell silent last year. But it appears to be going strong. Last week it cheered engineers by replying to a message sent by NASA’S Deep Space Network antenna. “Pioneer 10 has been discounted in the past, but somehow it always manages to fall on its feet,” says project manager Larry Lasher at NASA’s Ames Research Center.