the derelict craft millions of years from now.

Or maybe it just reappears as a momentary flash in the night sky atmosphere of a distant planet, wished upon by a three-legged creature.

became a 46 year one.

(the above one was "Voyager 6" )

Definitely a sad day. Or is it?

wernt there 2 of them? what happened to the other one . i have a mission patch of that probe in my patch collection.

August 4, 2023

https://www.npr.org/2023/08/02/1191341035/nasa-voyager-2-spacecraft-contact

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/voyager-2/

The two-spacecraft Voyager missions were designed to replace original plans for a “Grand Tour” of the planets that would have used four highly complex spacecraft to explore the five outer planets during the late 1970s.

NASA canceled the plan in January 1972 largely due to anticipated costs (projected at $1 billion) and instead proposed to launch only two spacecraft in 1977 to Jupiter and Saturn. The two spacecraft were designed to explore the two gas giants in more detail than the two Pioneers (Pioneers 10 and 11) that preceded them.

In 1974, mission planners proposed a mission in which, if the first Voyager was successful, the second one could be redirected to Uranus and then Neptune using gravity assist maneuvers.

Each of the two spacecraft was equipped with a slow-scan color TV camera to take images of the planets and their moons and each also carried an extensive suite of instruments to record magnetic, atmospheric, lunar, and other data about the planetary systems.

In current US passports, the American space program isn't represented by the Apollo program (thought that, too, would be a point of pride). It's represented by an image of a Voyager probe.

We like to talk about our accomplishments in manned space exploration, but no other country has sent unmanned probes to as many celestial bodies as the US. We've sent them to every planet; to several moons orbiting those planets; to comets and asteroids; and to objects in the Kuiper Belt. One of them, formerly called Ultima Thule, was discovered after the probe that flew by (New Horizons) was launched.

We've landed on more worlds than any other country. We've even operated a robotic aircraft over one of them.

Talk about an unparalleled history of accomplishment....

Voyager 1 is sending engineering and spacecraft control data back to earth it hasn't gone dark. The problem is the data from it's science instruments is jumbled. So they can still command the spacecraft but they can't do any science. Because it takes almost a full day to send a command and then almost a full day to receive the response it's incredibly hard to figure out what's wrong.

Either way this and it's twin have been amazing missions.

Please continue discussion in this earlier thread.