NASA has successfully revived a set of thrusters on its nearly 50-year-old Voyager 1 spacecraft, bringing it back from the brink of failure. The move is a significant engineering win for the team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which was racing against time to prevent a potential small explosion due to clogged fuel lines.
Voyager 1 launched in 1977 and has been operating beyond its original mission plan for over four decades. In 2004, its primary roll thrusters stopped working after internal heaters lost power. The backup thrusters are now at risk due to residue buildup in their fuel lines, which could cause failure as early as this fall.
Without functioning thrusters, Voyager 1 would lose its ability to stay properly aligned and eventually drift out of contact. However, the team has managed to restore power to the primary roll thrusters using a Hail Mary maneuver. The approach involved restoring heater power to the dormant thrusters, allowing them to auto-fire and correct the spacecraft’s course.
The repair is a crucial one, as the backup thrusters are no longer reliable due to clogged fuel lines. The team had few options, but decided to try and revive the primary thrusters using a power switch fix. Fortunately, the effort was successful, and the return signal from Voyager 1 indicated that the thruster heaters were back online.
The repair is just one of many challenges faced by the Voyager missions since leaving Earth over 47 years ago. Both spacecraft will eventually go dark, closing our most distant eye into the universe beyond our solar system. For now, NASA’s team has secured a vital lifeline for these historic probes, ensuring they can continue to send back data from their extraordinary journey into interstellar space.
Source: https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/15/voyager_1_survives_with_thruster_fix