NASA Restarts One of Voyager 1's Thrusters After 21 Years of Inactivity

NASA restarts one of Voyager 1's thrusters after 21 years of inactivity

With Voyager 1's backup roll thruster at risk of becoming blocked, engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) managed to relight the spacecraft's main thruster, nearly 25 billion kilometers away.

NASA successfully restarted one of Voyager 1’s thrusters after 21 years of inactivity

Forty-seven years and eight months after its launch, Voyager 1 continues to push the limits of what seemed possible. Voyager 1 is currently over 24.88 billion kilometers from Earth—about 166 times the distance between Earth and the Sun—making it the most distant human-made object in space.Launched in 1977, both Voyager spacecraft are now cruising through interstellar space at nearly 35,000 miles per hour. To maintain communication with Earth, th…

Mediafax Nearly 25 billion miles from Earth, Voyager 1 probe is the object created by the man who is the most distant from our planet and has already been operating for 47 years. Recently, NASA engineers have been able to respond from the distance to a major probe propeller, essential for its interstellar orientation after 21 years of inactivity, reported Le Monde. NASA engineers from Jet Propulsion Laboratory recently announced a remarkable tec…

Voyager 1 has been activated after 21 years of inactivity. NASA engineers have activated nearly 25 billion km away. At least one instrument on Voyager will be opened up by 2030. Voyager are the only ones who have left the heliosfer and move into the interstellar environment. In the fourteenth and seven years and eight months since launch, Voyager 1 continues to exceed the possible limits. Currently, over 24 billion miles from Earth, Voyager 1 is…

Artistic printing of one of the Voyager at full speed – 56,000 kilometers per hour – by space – NASA/JPL-Caltech In 2004 the propellers that allowed Voyager 1 to turn on its longitudinal axis – that along which it points its parabolic antenna – ceased to be used when its two heaters ceased to function. The mission team did not worry too much because they had another set of spare propellers, which they proceeded to activate and which the probe ha…

View of Voyager 1, published on September 4, 2012, on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the launch of the space probe. NASA / AFP Forty-seven years and eight months after its launch, Voyager 1 does not end up pushing the limits of the possible. Currently distant by 24.88 billion kilometers from the Earth, i.e. 166 times the distance Earth-Sun, Voyager 1 is the object of human origin furthest from the Blue Planet. NASA's mythical probe, lau…