In April 2026, NASA engineers turned off a science instrument aboard Voyager 1 to preserve energy and hold it working. Voyager 1, launched in 1977, is now the farthest human-made object, over 15 billion miles (24 billion km) from Earth and in interstellar area. Its radioisotope energy supply decays by ~4 watts a 12 months, so mission groups sacrifice some science (the LECP particle detector) to protect energy for the remaining devices.
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