Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have carried out a carefully coordinated power-saving procedure, dubbed the "Big Bang," to extend the working life of instruments aboard the veteran Voyager 2 spacecraft. The manoeuvre involved switching off some devices and replacing others with lower-power alternatives simultaneously, while keeping the probe warm enough to keep functioning, and it appears to have worked without knocking the ageing spacecraft offline. NASA says the savings will keep Voyager 2's remaining instruments running for at least another year, delaying a shutdown that would otherwise have been needed before the end of 2026.

Both Voyager probes, launched nearly 49 years ago, rely on plutonium-powered generators that lose around 4 watts of capacity annually, forcing engineers to progressively switch off non-essential systems. Voyager 2 currently has three instruments still operating, while Voyager 1, which suffered an unexpected power drop during a manoeuvre in February, is down to two after its Low Energy Charged Particles experiment was switched off in April. Engineers plan to apply the same Big Bang technique to Voyager 1 in the coming months, and hope it may allow that instrument to be restored.