All articles tagged with #extended mission
JPL engineers used a “big bang” heater switch on Voyager 2 to keep its electronics and fuel lines warm, freeing enough RTG power to extend the mission by about a year, with a similar upgrade planned for Voyager 1.
NASA has extended the New Horizons mission, allowing the spacecraft to continue exploring the outer reaches of the solar system until it exits the Kuiper Belt, potentially in 2028. Originally scheduled to end in 2024, the extended mission will focus on collecting heliophysics data while also searching for an object in the Kuiper Belt for a close flyby. The decision to extend the mission was celebrated by the mission team, who opposed a proposal to transfer the mission to a different division. New Horizons has already explored 37 objects in the Kuiper Belt and made history as the first spacecraft to visit Pluto.