Two Decades Later: The Revived Propellants from Mission 1 Make a Comeback

In 2004, 27 years after the departure of the probes, NASA declared a failure at the level of the propellers of Travel 1. The irreparable thinking, the American space agency had declared them dead. More than 20 years later, this crucial equipment has been brought back to life just in time by engineers Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

In some time, the mission must end because the probes, far too far from the earth, can no longer be maintained alive by engineers. This is why the JPL engineers tried everything to try to give life to propellers who have been considered dead since 2004 on Travel 1.

The latter were crucial for the antenna of Travel 1 can always be oriented towards earth so as not to lose contact. Indeed, 21 years ago, the engineers of the JPL had noticed a failure at the level of the tubes containing the fuel necessary for the food of the propellants.

The latter had undergone significant heat loss. Considered a problem impossible to solve, the JPL then resigned itself not to dwell on this failure, therefore declaring the propellants responsible for maintaining the orientation of the antenna of Travel 1 as dead.

But, while they were considered to be lost forever, the JPL announced, on May 14, 2025, that the propellants could have been brought back to life.

“” “I think that at the time, the team was ready to accept that Roulis' propellants [ndr, mouvement de roulement sur son axe permettant de maintenir l’antenne dans la bonne direction] primary did not work because it had a perfectly effective rescue system. And frankly, they probably did not think that traveling them would continue to operate for another 20 years“Said Kareem Badaruddin, the mission manager To travel in the JPL press release.

Where are the probes To travel ?

After 48 years wandering in space, flying over planets or having offered us the famous shot A pale blue dot On February 14, 1990, the probes To travel went a long way.

Finally, everything is relative, especially with regard to the distance scales that we face in the cosmos.

Indeed, according to real -time monitoring of the trip of To travel By NASA, the number 1 is nearly 25 billion kilometers of the earth when the number 2 is about 21 billion kilometers from our planet.

It is a considerable distance on a human scale only. Located in the interstellar space, the probes To travel have not even traveled a light day yet (25.9 billion kilometers). They will stay for a very long time, and perhaps forever, the objects made by the most distant man from the earth.

Let's just hope that the gold records they took with them do not fall into bad hands, otherwise we would have the unpleasant surprise to receive a visit that we would have passed.