NASA Voyager mission engineers are preparing a software patch that will allow the thrusters aboard the Voyager 1 and 2 interstellar probes to continue operating for another five years, keeping the spacecraft in communications with Earth.
The Voyager spacecraft have been in service since their launch in 1977 and have exceeded their life expectancy many times over. They're a testament to the teams that designed them, but after almost half a century their very longevity is creating new problems that were never anticipated.
