NASA’s Voyager 1 probe could soon go silent forever

A space probe nearing its 50th birthday has stopped contacting Earth and soon communications could be ceased entirely. Launched by NASA in 1977, Voyager 1 is one of the longest continually-running spacecraft in human history and the first human-made objects to escape our Solar System. It is still zipping away from us, approximately 15.1 billion miles (24.3 billion kilometers) away from us.

But on November 14, 2023, NASA engineers reported that Voyager 1 has stopped talking to us thanks to a pesky computer glitch. This has disabled the craft’s ability to send back telemetry data, which gives an overview of the overall health of the vehicle. While Suzanne Dodd, Voyager project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, stressed that they haven’t given up yet, she told Ars Technica that it would be “the biggest miracle if we get it back.”

But as the timeline lengthens from when Voyager 1 ghosted us, NASA engineers are also planning for a somber goodbye. “Even though we know the end could come at any time, it’s never easy to lose a spacecraft. Especially one like Voyager 1,” Bruce Waggoner, the Voyager mission assurance manager, told Space.com.