I was impressed when the intrepid NASA engineers working on the Galileo Jupiter mission were able to almost totally rebuild the computer on the spacecraft while it was on its way, after the high-gain antenna failed to deploy properly. (By rebuild, I mean that they totally reprogrammed the way it handled memory, to optimize the transmission of data via the low-gain antenna. Quite amazing.)
Well, they've gone a lot further, in terms of distance. The Voyager 2 probe, which is on the periphery of the Solar System (well into the Kuiper belt) suddenly started sending garbled data. So the engineers on the ground were able to diagnose the problem, identify it, and send commands to fix it -- according to the article it was a "bit flip" that caused a reset. And it worked, Voyager 2 is transmitting science data again.
And to think I'm still impressed that PC repairs can be done over the cable line!
NASA fixes bug on Voyager 2
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