In April 2024, Voyager 1—humanity’s farthest spacecraft—began sending garbled data due to a faulty memory chip in its 47-year-old computer. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab team spent months diagnosing the issue and uploaded a software patch to bypass the damaged hardware.
The fix worked, and Voyager 1 has resumed transmitting readings about interstellar space. The mission, launched in 1977, has survived multiple near-death experiences thanks to NASA’s ingenuity. Its power reserves may last until 2030, after which it will drift silently among the stars.
Voyager 1 is the little spacecraft that could—it’s outlived every expectation.”
— Suzanne Dodd, Voyager Project Manager.
- JPL engineers celebrating
- Golden Record replica
- Signal strength graph
