You wrote: >Communication means an exchange of information. Receiving a signal does not. You were wrong. Communication does not explicitly require response.

You wrote: >Communication means an exchange of information. Receiving a signal does not. You were wrong. Communication does not explicitly require response. The definition of "communication": >"means of sending or receiving information, such as phone lines or computers." It says "Sending or receiving information". It does not say "sending and receiving". The spacecraft can be receiving perfectly fine, and that is communication from earth to the spacecraft. We may not be getting a valid response, but that does not mean we haven't communicated information to the spacecraft. This is the obtuse hill you chose to keep dying on.