Original Coverage: ‘Yet another miracle save’: NASA engineers complete nail-biting maneuver to resurrect Voyager 1’s long-dead thrusters

NASA engineers have resurrected Voyager 1’s half-century-old thrusters more than 20 years after they fell silent. The miracle fix has bought precious time for the veteran spacecraft, enabling it to stay in operation until next year. Voyager 1 is currently more than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth. It is currently recording the conditions outside of the sun’s protective magnetic field, or heliosphere, which blankets our solar system. The craft’s backup thrusters, which keep it locked on a course to a reference star that keeps it oriented toward and in contact with Earth, have been slowly clogging up with propellant residue. But the Earth-based antenna that sends these commands to Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, is due an upgrade and is due to go offline in February 2026. The engineers needed to know if the primary thrusters could work again before that time.

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