US EditionNASA Engineers Revive Long-Dormant Thrusters on Voyager 1, the Farthest Spacecraft From Earth, in a 'Miracle Save'
- NASA engineers revived dormant backup thrusters on Voyager 1, the farthest human-made probe, in March 2025 to avoid mission failure.
- The repair was urgent because Voyager 1's primary roll thrusters failed, and backup thrusters showed residue buildup risking loss of antenna alignment.
- Engineers reactivated thruster heaters declared unserviceable since 2004 using internal heaters to restore attitude control for antenna pointing toward Earth.
- Voyager 1, launched in 1977 and 15.46 billion miles away, now uses backup thrusters under a softer firing schedule to minimize wear, noted as a “glorious moment.”
- This fix allows Voyager 1 to continue exploring interstellar space and aids scientists studying solar effects far from Earth, with hopes the mission lasts beyond 2027.
16 Articles
16 Articles
A broken thruster jeopardized Voyager 1, but engineers executed a remote fix
NASA mission controllers raced against time to find a solution before a crucial ground-based radio used for communicating with Voyagers 1 and 2, went offline for upgrades.(Image credit: AP)
A scientific team has achieved the unthinkable: to revive some propellers of the legendary spaceship Voyager I that were considered useless since the distant year 2004
NASA Engineers Revive Long-Dormant Thrusters on Voyager 1, the Farthest Spacecraft From Earth, in a 'Miracle Save'
In the nick of time, NASA teams addressed clogging issues in the probe’s backup roll thrusters, before the only antenna capable of sending commands to it went offline
With creativity and calculated risk, the vital reactivation of the inoperable nozzles since 2004 was achieved just before the probe muted for months.
NASA launched the Voyager 1 space probe almost 50 years ago to become the first spacecraft to reach interstellar space and, since then, such a space instrument continues to explore the solar system to discover what is beyond space borders and to obtain information from the planets furthest from the Sun.Although such a probe has been providing nearly half a century of data of interest to the scientific community, a year and a half ago, NASA had q…
Voyager 1’s Long-Dead Thrusters Fire Again After 20 Years – Just in Time
Against all odds, NASA engineers brought back to life a set of Voyager 1’s thrusters thought to be dead since 2004. With the spacecraft now in deep interstellar space, the fix was driven by growing concerns that its currently used thrusters might soon fail. Racing against time before a long communications blackout, the team made [...]
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