Voyager 1 Powers Down a 50-Year-Old Instrument to Preserve Energy

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NASA's Voyager 1 — the farthest spacecraft from Earth — has recently deactivated one of its five-decade-old instruments in an effort to save limited power. Now situated over 15 billion miles away, this probe is the sole human-made object functioning in interstellar space. Engineers are meticulously prioritizing which instruments to keep operational to sustain this iconic mission.

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00:00After nearly 50 years racing through the void between stars, NASA's Voyager 1 just made a difficult decision.

00:06It powered down one of its oldest scientific instruments, a sacrifice to keep the rest of the spacecraft alive.

00:13Voyager 1 is more than 15 billion miles from Earth.

00:17It launched in 1977, and after nearly half a century of operation, its plutonium power source is running out.

00:25Each instrument shut off costs NASA a piece of irreplaceable science, but every watt saved buys more time.

00:33Voyager 1 is the only human-built object operating in interstellar space.

00:37It has crossed the boundary of the sun's protective bubble.

00:41It carries the golden record, humanity's message to anyone who might find it.

00:46NASA engineers are now performing a careful triage, keeping the most critical systems online for as long as possible.

00:53And every American who looks up at the night sky should know.

00:57Out there, beyond the planets, a piece of the United States is still listening.

01:02I'm sorry.

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