Trending Now - Voyager 1 Powers Down Instrument to Extend Mission Life

WHO:

CNN - Kareem Badaruddin, Voyager mission manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

CNN - Matt Hill, principal investigator for the Low-energy Charged Particles experiment at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

CNN - Stamatios Krimigis, principal investigator for the Low-energy Charged Particles experiment at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

WHAT:

Sky and Telescope - Voyager 1 powered down its Low-energy Charged Particles experiment on April 17.

CNN - Voyager 1 is currently about 25.40 billion kilometers (16 billion miles) from Earth.

CNN - Voyager 2 is approximately 21.35 billion kilometers (13 billion miles) away from Earth.

CNN - Voyager 1 has two remaining operating science instruments.

CNN - Engineers hope the shutdown will allow Voyager 1 to operate for about one year.

CNN - The "Big Bang" fix is planned for Voyager 2 in May and June, and for Voyager 1 in July.

WHERE:

CNN - Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are located in interstellar space, beyond the heliosphere.

WHEN:

CNN - The Low-energy Charged Particles experiment was turned off on Voyager 1 on April 17.

CNN - The "Big Bang" fix for Voyager 2 is scheduled for May and June, with Voyager 1's attempt in July.

WHY:

CNN - The shutdown of the instrument is intended to save power as Voyager 1 travels farther from Earth.

CNN - The mission team aims to extend the lifespan of Voyager 1, which has exceeded its expected five-year mission.

HOW:

CNN - NASA sent a command to deactivate the Low-energy Charged Particles experiment.

CNN - The probes run on radioisotope thermoelectric generators that convert heat from decaying plutonium into electricity.

CNN - Engineers are managing power by turning off instruments and heaters to prevent the spacecraft from freezing.

(UPDATED April 27, 2026 21:25 UTC)

NASA's Voyager 1 has powered down its Low-energy Charged Particles experiment as part of efforts to conserve energy while it travels further into interstellar space, currently about 25.40 billion kilometers from Earth. The mission team, including Kareem Badaruddin and principal investigators Matt Hill and Stamatios Krimigis, hopes this shutdown will allow Voyager 1 to continue operating for about one more year, with a planned "Big Bang" fix for Voyager 2 set for May and June, followed by Voyager 1 in July. Both Voyager spacecraft are equipped with radioisotope thermoelectric generators that convert heat from decaying plutonium into electricity, and engineers are carefully managing power by turning off non-essential instruments and heaters to prevent freezing as they journey beyond the heliosphere.