NASA's most distant spacecraft had a critical thruster problem far from home. Fixing it required a long-distance call to overcome extreme cold and dwindling power.
honestly, I’m impressed that it still has reaction mass to fire. or hasn’t hit a space rock and either pancaked or broke up into a million bits and peices.
Space is huge, sure. but lets be honest. It’s a miracle that thing is still functioning and in an communicable state. They certainly don’t build them like they used to.
Pioneer 10, launched 1972, last contact January 2003
Pioneer 11, launched 1973, last contact November 1995
Voyager 2, launched August 1977, still active
Voyager 1, launched September 1977, still active
New Horizons, launched 2006, still active
All NASA projects.
There’s one ESA-led project, Ulysses, launched in 1990, shut down in 2008. This is still in the solar system, but WP says that there’s some chance that in November 2098, it may undergo a gravitational slingshot induced by Jupiter that will eventually send it out of the solar system.
And…looks like that’s it. The sum total of what mankind has built to date that will make it out of the solar system. The last launch humanity did towards interstellar space was 18 years ago.
honestly, I’m impressed that it still has reaction mass to fire. or hasn’t hit a space rock and either pancaked or broke up into a million bits and peices.
Space is huge, sure. but lets be honest. It’s a miracle that thing is still functioning and in an communicable state. They certainly don’t build them like they used to.
It doesn’t look like anyone’s built much by way of spacecraft intended to enter interstellar space recently.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_artificial_objects_leaving_the_Solar_System
Pioneer 10, launched 1972, last contact January 2003
Pioneer 11, launched 1973, last contact November 1995
Voyager 2, launched August 1977, still active
Voyager 1, launched September 1977, still active
New Horizons, launched 2006, still active
All NASA projects.
There’s one ESA-led project, Ulysses, launched in 1990, shut down in 2008. This is still in the solar system, but WP says that there’s some chance that in November 2098, it may undergo a gravitational slingshot induced by Jupiter that will eventually send it out of the solar system.
And…looks like that’s it. The sum total of what mankind has built to date that will make it out of the solar system. The last launch humanity did towards interstellar space was 18 years ago.