--- title: "Voyager 1 Is in Serious Trouble, NASA Says" description: "NASA's Voyager 1 probe is 46 years old and pushing middle age — and some of that aging is apparently showing." date: "2023-12-14" modified: "2023-12-14" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/voyager-1-trouble" categories: - "NASA" - "Space" tags: - "NASA" - "the digest" - "voyager" - "voyager 1" --- # Voyager 1 Is in Serious Trouble, NASA Says ![NASA's Voyager 1 probe is 46 years old and pushing middle age — and some of that aging is apparently showing.]() *\Image: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Futurism\* ## Gen X NASA's Voyager 1 probe has been cruising into distant space for 46 years — and some of that advanced age is apparently showing. As [NASA explained in a blog update](), one of the pioneering probe's computers, known as its flight data system (FDS), is "not communicating properly." Because of these translation issues, the craft launched during the dawn of space travel is currently unable to send any information back to Earth. With so many incredible Earth-made crafts currently floating around in space, it's easy to forget that the probes launched in the Voyager mission are still out there collecting and transmitting data from the outer reaches of our Solar System. Voyager 1's specific mission for the past four-odd decades, for instance, has been to collect and transmit back to Earth "data on the transition between the heliosphere — the region of space dominated by the Sun’s magnetic field and solar field — and the interstellar medium," [NASA notes in an explainer](). ## Ground Control Normally, the probe — which, oddly, was [launched about a month *after* Voyager 2](), making it the second of the two-craft mission to launch despite its numerical name order — sends its scientific readings about interstellar space and its engineering updates in what's known as a "package" of easily-translatable binary code. Over the past few months, however, the probe has been "stuck" transmitting repetitive patterns of ones and zeroes that are the binary equivalent of gobbledygook. While the Earth-bound Voyager team was able to target which instrument was behind the malfunction, they haven't yet been able to adequately troubleshoot it back into working order. "This past weekend the team tried to restart the FDS and return it to the state it was in before the issue began," NASA said in the statement, "but the spacecraft still isn’t returning useable data." It may take the agency's engineers "several weeks" to figure out how to fix the probe. "Finding solutions to challenges the probes encounter often entails consulting original, decades-old documents written by engineers who didn’t anticipate the issues that are arising today," NASA pointed out. "As a result, it takes time for the team to understand how a new command will affect the spacecraft’s operations in order to avoid unintended consequences." You gotta hand it to NASA: There's little chance that any of the agency's engineers who were there during the launch of the Voyager mission foresaw it lasting anywhere near this long, and the fact that it's still anywhere near functional, all things considered, is pretty epic. **More on NASA's old heads:** [*Space Station Turns 25, Just in Time to Die*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()