Check out AMSAT-OSCAR 7 -- Closer to home, but launched in 1974, and still waking up when there's sun to operate. It's the oldest "operational" satellite still up there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMSAT-OSCAR_7

A truly beautiful piece of engineering

Voyager 1 was launched in 1977 - just before the Reagan era. Coincidence?

Also, and I'm still just guessing here, it's probably the culmination of the space race to the moon minus the pressure to be there before the Russians.

In other words, NASA's Golden Age.

not enough engineers use LSD anymore because they'll lose their entire career over it and be blacklisted from government contracts forever.

the McCarthys won.

It's not profitable

For roughly three milliseconds I thought to myself they shoulda used solar panels instead.

"Oh, wait...."

Actually basically yes. NASA has had decades of practice at minimum viable operation capability, making their spacecraft and rovers all but drag themselves along even when anything else would stop working.

So far away that it takes an entire day to get the signal to it. The earth to the sun is 8 minutes.

And somehow we can still talk to it. It's amazing.

This, coupled with the improbable idea that it could be "found" someday, has got to be one of the most exciting and magical concepts in science ever

1-2 day ETA for an interstellar telegram lol

Doesn't even run Outlook, let alone two. Pathetic.

I remember when both Voyagers were making their fly bys. We'd get a bunch of images in magazines and stuff, and then wait several more years for the next planet. Between that and the Space Shuttle flights it was awesome.

I wasn't around for the moon landings so Skylab and Voyager were the highlights of my days.

Really long stick

I think what they mean is that if the thing starts shutting stuff down on its own, the process to get those things started again is tedious. While if the humans tell it to shut things down, it is all more orderly.

The Voyager mission launched in 1977. If I recall correctly, it takes roughly 80 years for the planets to realign for that purpose. If I didn't misremember, we're about halfway through waiting.

The clock ran out years ago. They have been building bridges to New clocks for decades. But yes. Soon it will die, only propelled forward into nothingness and loneliness forever.