Voyager has been in space for more than 40 years – and is still going strong NASA/JPL-Caltech

It’s alive! By firing a set of thrusters that have been gathering dust for more than 3 decades, NASA has extended the lifetime of the Voyager 1 mission by a few years.

The interstellar probe is 13 billion miles away, moving at a speed of over 17 kilometres per second, but it still manages to send messages back to Earth. In order to do that, it needs to keep its antenna pointed towards us.

After 40 years in space, the thrusters that orient the spacecraft and keep its antenna aiming in the right direction have started to break down.


NASA engineers decided to try firing the craft’s backup thrusters, which have been dormant for 37 years. Then, they had to wait 19 hours and 35 minutes to get a signal from Voyager 1 at the edge of our solar system. The long shot worked, and NASA scientists plan to fully switch over to the backup thrusters in 2020.

The Voyager flight team dug up old records and studied the original software before tackling the test. As each milestone in the test was achieved, the excitement level grew, said propulsion engineer Todd Barber.

“The mood was one of relief, joy and incredulity after witnessing these well-rested thrusters pick up the baton as if no time had passed at all,” he said in a statement.

By switching out the thrusters, Voyager 1 may be able to keep sending us messages for a little while longer, until around 2025.

Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 is the only spacecraft travelling through interstellar space, the region beyond our solar system.

Voyager 2 is close on its heels, nearly 11 billion miles from Earth. The thruster test worked so well that NASA expects to try it on Voyager 2 in the future.

Read more: Where am I? Voyager on the solar system’s frontier