Prashanth MohanMay 17, 2025
Brian Greenberg 

🚀 Voyager 1 isn’t done yet — not even close 🧠🔧📡

NASA just pulled off another miracle save:
🛰️ The spacecraft’s primary roll thrusters, offline since 2004, were believed permanently dead
🧯 With backup thrusters at risk of failure, JPL engineers gambled on a high-stakes heater reset
🔥 If wrong, it could’ve caused a small onboard explosion
📡 If right, it would restore control — 15.6 billion miles from Earth

They were right. The thrusters fired. Voyager 1 can still hold its course.

This wasn’t a reboot. It was old-school problem-solving, deep systems knowledge, and the audacity to trust an idea that might just work.

The most distant human object is still flying — because a team believed it could.

#Voyager1 #NASA #Space #Engineering #Resilience #DeepSpace
https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/15/voyager_1_survives_with_thruster_fix/

NASA keeps ancient Voyager 1 spacecraft alive with Hail Mary thruster fix

: Failure could've triggered a small explosion

The Register
May 16, 2025 at 3:33amWeb
Show threadLudovic :Firefox: :FreeBSD:May 16, 2025
@brian_greenberg this is how software should be build.
Show threadSable Shade🇦🇺🍉🗝🇵🇸🇺🇦May 16, 2025
@brian_greenberg
Awesome
Ancient, tho😁
I think there are those at the museums and under the earth and beyond it and voyager that may take umbrage at this
Show thread ShalienMay 16, 2025
@brian_greenberg Should we call it legacy or historic ? x)
Show threadMoonshine FoxMay 16, 2025
@brian_greenberg between Voyager and the rover I’ll never not be amazed at NASA’s engineers and scientists.
Show threadZeeshan Ali Khan  🇺🇦May 17, 2025
@brian_greenberg so Star Trek 1 wasn't entirely silly and the part about Voyager persevering for a very long time, turned out to be true 😊
Show threadKathmanduMay 17, 2025

@zeenix @brian_greenberg

Let's hear it for our space child VGER! 🙂 🎉

Show thread🇺🇦 haxadecimal 🚫👑May 17, 2025
@brian_greenberg
Why does it need to "hold its course"? It's not like there are specific objects it's going to encounter in its remaining operational life.
I'd think it would only need attitude control to keep antennas pointed at Earth, and the course would adequately be handled by inertia.
Show threadJason Haar May 17, 2025
@brouhaha @brian_greenberg yeah, these things are likely to outlast the earth...
Show thread☢️ Waschbär ☢️May 17, 2025

@brian_greenberg

I am so inspired by everything about the voyager.
And what the team constantly pulls off is stuff worthy of movies, simply legendary.

Show threadGuy HolmesMay 17, 2025
@brian_greenberg
Sounds like ‘switch it off and on again’ but at an incredible distance!
Show threadRaglan Niall  May 17, 2025
@brian_greenberg I'm sure DOGE could have done this for half the budget using AI /s
Show threadArthur van der HargMay 17, 2025

@Niall @brian_greenberg Indeed: if Musk had been around in the 1970’s, the Voyagers would be at Alpha Centauri by now!

Anyway, why would you need to send out probes when you can just ask Grok what’s out there?

Show threadLance, Enjoying Copious PollenMay 17, 2025

@brian_greenberg The ingenuity that goes into keeping an aging, unfathomably distant, spacecraft running decades past its projected lifespan is awe-inspiring.

Meanwhile, here on planet Earth, people are advised to scrap millions of high-powered, perfectly serviceable PCs — all based on the whims of a software company that elevates profit above people and the environment.

Voyager 1 is proof that it doesn't have to be this way.

Show threadglauber ribeiro 🇵🇸🏳️‍🌈🎶May 17, 2025

@brian_greenberg @naturesketchbook

One day an advanced alien civilization will find it, trace its trajectory back to find Earth and then come to visit us, wondering how much we must have evolved since then. 👽 They will be so disappointed.

Show threadAnn EffesMay 17, 2025

@brian_greenberg

Of course it is not done. Everyone who watched the documentary "Star Trek" knows, that V'ger will live quite some time into the future.

Show threadsergio_101May 17, 2025

@brian_greenberg

It would be so interesting if they would open source the software.

This would be so interesting for us guys who got into the field just after all this happened and missed this kind of computing.

Show threadTitia SchuurmanMay 29, 2025
@brian_greenberg Tom Gauld's take 😄
newscientist.com/article/24819…
Tom Gauld on the many travails of Voyager One

Tom Gauld's weekly cartoon

New Scientist
Show threadhaagenJun 3, 2025
@brian_greenberg stories like this makes me happy! 🧑🏼‍🏫