NASA Revived 37-Year-Dormant Voyager 1 Thrusters to Keep 21 Billion-Km Antenna Locked on Earth
Updated
Updated · spacedaily.com · Jul 15
NASA Revived 37-Year-Dormant Voyager 1 Thrusters to Keep 21 Billion-Km Antenna Locked on Earth
1 articles · Updated · spacedaily.com · Jul 15
Summary
Four Voyager 1 thrusters dormant since 1980 fired successfully in a 2017 test, delivering 10-millisecond pulses to keep the probe’s 3.7-meter antenna pointed at Earth.
NASA turned to the backup set after attitude-control thrusters had degraded since 2014, needing more pulses and consuming limited hydrazine faster.
At 21 billion kilometers away, engineers had to pre-judge the entire command sequence as safe because telemetry confirming the result took 19 hours and 35 minutes to reach California.
The revived trajectory-correction thrusters had never handled routine attitude pulses before, so JPL reconstructed decades-old records and assembler code to model their behavior.
The switch extended Voyager 1’s life by an estimated two to three years, though power still declines by about 4 watts annually and only two science instruments remain active after a 2026 shutdown.
After reviving 49-year-old hardware, can a new software fix outsmart aging and extend Voyager's historic journey into the 2030s?
What forgotten secrets are engineers finding in 1970s code to command a spacecraft now a full light-day away from Earth?
As Voyager fades, is its value now in the science it returns or the engineering lessons it teaches from deep interstellar space?
Voyager 1 at One Light-Day: The 2025 Thruster Revival and Humanity’s Most Distant Mission
Overview
In March 2025, NASA achieved a major milestone by reviving Voyager 1’s primary roll thrusters after its backup thrusters degraded. This breakthrough allowed the spacecraft to maintain its orientation and continue sending valuable data from interstellar space, significantly extending its operational life. Due to the immense distance, each command from Earth takes about 23 hours to reach Voyager 1, and another 23 hours for a response, forcing the mission team to wait nearly two days for confirmation. Despite these challenges, the successful thruster revival ensures Voyager 1 can keep communicating with Earth and exploring the cosmos.