# Voyager 1 Fires Up Thrusters After 37 Years

https://blog.cynexia.com/voyager-1-fires-up-thrusters-after-37-years

Author: [Rob Aleck](https://blog.cynexia.com/pages/about) · https://github.com/mnbf9rca · https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertaleck/ · https://family-foqos.app/

Published: 2018-09-07
Categories: LinkedIn cross-post


Sometimes the code i write doesn't work 6 months later - so I was incredibly impressed to read about the NASA team who reprogrammed the Voyager 1 space probe some 37 YEARS after the code was last changed. I can't imagine what the 40 hour wait between sending the commands and receiving the response was like.  
[https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/voyager-1-fires-up-thrusters-after-37](<https://web.archive.org/web/20180907215159/https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/voyager-1-fires-up-thrusters-after-37>)The Voyager team is able to use a set of four backup thrusters, dormant since 1980, for orienting the spacecraft.