NASA Revives Voyager 1's Dead Thrusters After 21 Years — Here's How
NASA engineers have put backup thrusters not used since 2004 back into service on its aging Voyager 1 spacecraft — from almost 16 billion miles away.
The farthest human-made object, Voyager 1, was launched in 1977 and travels at 35,000 mph (56,000 kph). It uses thrusters to keep itself oriented, pivoting so its antenna is pointed at Earth for communications to be sent and received. However, on its nearly five-decade-long journey through space, hardware has degraded to the extent that the entire mission hinges on engineers being creative. This is just the latest example of NASA trying to extend the lifetime of arguably the most famous spacecraft humanity has ever built — but can it reach its 50th birthday in 2027?
According to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the spacecraft's primary roll thrusters, which control the spacecraft's rotation, haven't been used since 2004 when their internal heaters failed. For the last 21 years, backup roll thrusters have been used. However, these are now degrading. So engineers went back to failed internal heaters and, just in case, attempted to revive a power switch that may been at fault 21 years ago.
Despite the radio signal taking over 23 hours to travel from Earth to the spacecraft, the fix — a sequence of commands — worked from 16 billion miles away. 'It was such a glorious moment,' said Todd Barber, the mission's propulsion lead at JPL. 'These thrusters were considered dead. It was yet another miracle save for Voyager.'
The thruster swap had to be performed in double-quick time because, on May 4, 2025, the only facility powerful enough to send commands to Voyager 1 went down for maintenance. The 230-foot-wide (70-meter-wide) antenna Deep Space Station 43 antenna in Canberra, Australia — part of NASA's Deep Space Network — will be out of action through February 2026. The restoration of its primary roll thrusters means Voyager 1 can transmit data back to Earth while DSS-43 is down.
The Deep Space Network is how engineers communicate with and receive data from the space agency's 30+ robotic probes in the solar system and beyond. There are three complexes in the network, in California, Madrid in Spain and Canberra in Australia — each placed 120° from each other. California's antenna at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in the Mojave Desert near Barstow, California, was upgraded in 2020 to enable it to handle ultra-fast 'space broadband.' Antenna upgrades are essential for, among other things, NASA's plans to land astronauts on the moon and beyond.
Voyager 1 is now in interstellar space in the constellation Ophiuchus, in the southern sky beneath the Summer Triangle stars, as seen from the Northern Hemisphere.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
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