Once ‘dead’ thrusters on the farthest spacecraft from Earth are in action again
- NASA engineers revived Voyager 1's original roll thrusters, which had been inactive since 2004, to maintain control of the spacecraft 15.5 billion miles away in interstellar space.
- The revival came as the backup thrusters face clogging issues that could cause failure as soon as this fall, threatening the mission if Voyager 1 loses roll control.
- Voyager 1 launched in 1977, relies on multiple thrusters for attitude control, and continually sends data back while receiving commands via an Earth-based antenna undergoing upgrades.
- Voyager mission manager Kareem Badaruddin said the team accepted the original thrusters were dead due to heater power loss but had confidence in the backup system, making the fix a critical success.
- The thruster fix buys time for Voyager 1 to operate through upcoming communications blackout and supports deep space science missions, reflecting high team morale and ongoing mission resilience.
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'Yet another miracle save': NASA engineers complete nail-biting maneuver to resurrect Voyager 1's long-dead thrusters
More than 15 billion miles from home, Voyager 1's ailing thrusters were threatening to abort the craft's mission. Until NASA engineers brought them miraculously back to life.
·United States
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