NASA has successfully applied a software update to Voyager 2, the interstellar probe launched in 1977, extending its operational life by at least another year. The fix, dubbed "Big Bang" and transmitted across roughly 13 billion miles of space, was needed because the spacecraft's plutonium-powered generator continues to lose energy each year, and without intervention NASA would have had to switch off one of its three remaining scientific instruments later this year.

The operation involved simultaneously deactivating certain power-hungry devices and replacing them with lower-power alternatives, while ensuring the probe stayed warm enough to keep functioning. Voyager 2 originally carried ten working instruments but is now down to three, having lost the rest over the decades to conserve dwindling power, at a rate of about 4 watts a year. Launched shortly before its twin, Voyager 1, the probe toured the solar system's gas giants through the 1980s before entering interstellar space in 2018, where it continues to gather data on the plasma beyond the Sun's heliosphere.