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NASA Pulls Off Delicate Thruster Swap, Keeping Voyager 1 Mission Alive


Engineers needed to swap out the clogged thrusters on the spacecraft as it continues its journey through interstellar space.

Recently, NASA engineers had to resolve a thruster issue affecting Voyager 1, overcoming a series of obstacles posed by the probe’s aging hardware. During the beginning of its mission, Voyager 1 needed the different types of thrusters to carry out its planetary flybys, but the spacecraft is now on a straightforward path out of the solar system, therefore it’s no longer picky with which one it uses. This procedure of switching thrusters would’ve been easy back in the day, but Voyager 1 is no spring chicken and the spacecraft requires more careful handling today.

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