Voyager 1's 37-Year Dormant Thrusters Fire Again to Preserve Link to Earth
NASA’s Voyager 1 kept its interstellar link alive by reviving a back-up attitude-control thruster set that hadn’t been used since 1980, a 37-year restart that let the antenna stay pointed at Earth and continue transmitting despite the aging energy supply from its RTGs, which are fading by roughly four watts per year. The operation underscores the careful power budgeting, redundancy, and disciplined planning needed in deep-space maintenance, with 2025 thruster restorations and 2024 communications glitches illustrating that continuity—not perpetual hardware—keeps these probes alive.