Voyager 1 Nears One-light-day Mark After Silence Scare

WHO:

Science Daily - NASA operates Voyager 1, whose engineers are working to address dwindling power and technical problems.

Gizmodo - NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN), an array of giant radio antennas around the world, communicates with Voyager 1.

Gizmodo - Kareem Badaruddin is Voyager mission manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California.

Gizmodo - Suzanne Dodd is Voyager project manager at JPL.

Gizmodo - The twin Voyager probes are powered by heat from decaying plutonium, converted into electricity.

WHAT:

Science Daily - Voyager 1 is approaching the milestone of being one light-day from Earth; a round-trip communication will take 48 hours.

Gizmodo - Voyager 1 traveled 16 billion miles (26 billion kilometers) from Earth and is expected to reach one light-day away at 16.09 billion miles (25.89 billion kilometers).

Gizmodo - NASA lost contact with Voyager 1 during two DSN communication attempts; its signal returned, and contact has continued since.

Gizmodo - One group of Voyager 1’s thrusters went offline during the communication loss, prompting its backup thrusters to activate automatically.

Gizmodo - The spacecraft launched with 10 science instruments; some have been switched off to conserve power.

Gizmodo - The “big bang” power-saving maneuver switched off three devices and replaced them with three lower-power alternatives.

Gizmodo - Voyager 1 gathers data about interstellar space beyond the heliosphere, a bubble of particles and magnetic fields created by the Sun.

Gizmodo - “This is the first time we’ve seen the spacecraft do something like this,” Badaruddin said, adding, “we have to expect the unexpected.”

Gizmodo - Dodd said, “If you want to say ‘hello’ to Voyager, you send your message and then you go home and you wait two days before you finally get a response.”

WHERE:

Gizmodo - Voyager 1 is traveling through interstellar space; its distance is measured from Earth.

Gizmodo - The DSN’s radio antennas are spread across different parts of the world.

Gizmodo - JPL is in Southern California.

WHEN:

Science Daily - Voyager 1 is approaching the one-light-day milestone nearly 50 years after launch.

Gizmodo - Voyager 1 was launched in 1977.

Gizmodo - DSN failed to detect the signal during scheduled attempts 24 hours apart; communication resumed a day after the second attempt.

Gizmodo - The spacecraft loses about 4 watts of power each year.

Gizmodo - Without the power-saving maneuver, Voyager 1 would have needed to turn off another instrument by summer 2027.

WHY:

Gizmodo - Engineers are conserving power to extend Voyager 1’s operational life; the maneuver delayed the need to turn off another instrument.

Gizmodo - The spacecraft’s automatic thruster switch is programmed to respond to a potential thruster problem and place it in a stable, safe configuration.

HOW:

Science Daily - At one light-day, light takes 24 hours to travel between Earth and Voyager 1, making a round trip take 48 hours.

Gizmodo - Voyager 1’s onboard computers detected a potential thruster problem, triggering the backup thrusters; the automatic response pauses normal operations while engineers investigate.

(UPDATED November 3, 2026 14:06 UTC)

Voyager 1 is nearing one light-day from Earth, making each round-trip message take 48 hours. NASA engineers are conserving power as the aging spacecraft loses about four watts annually. After a thruster problem briefly disrupted contact, backup thrusters activated and communications resumed.