Voyager Probes Get Long-Distance Updates To Keep The Antique Spacecraft Going

After 46 years and many billions of miles spent hurtling through space, NASA’s Voyager probes are showing their age, and the agency hopes two recent adjustment to the spacecraft will allow their mission to continue.

One repair involved a software patches that should prevent Voyager 1 from continuing to send back faulty data, among other fixes. "This patch is like an insurance policy that will protect us in the future and help us keep these probes going as long as possible," said Suzanne Dodd, Voyager project manager.

Another fix was made to the probes' fuel thrusters, which have been hampered by accumulated residue. NASA scientists will begin allowing the craft to slightly rotate as they fly — reducing how often the thrusters must fire but further limiting the probes' contact with Earth.

Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 launched in 1977 on a mission to study Jupiter and Saturn that was supposed to last at least four years. They've endured far longer than NASA had originally expect, and the agency is scrambling to figure out how to prolong their journeys.

"This far into the mission, the engineering team is being faced with a lot of challenges for which we just don’t have a playbook," said Linda Spilker, Voyager's project scientist. "But they continue to come up with creative solutions."

In July, it seemed like Voyager 2's flight had come to an unexpected end. For several days, NASA lost touch with the probe as an outdated command caused it to point its antenna away from Earth, but the agency quickly regained contact wi the probe.

"These are the only spacecraft to ever operate in interstellar space, so the data they’re sending back is uniquely valuable to our understanding of our local universe," Dodd said.