Launched in 1977 to explore Jupiter and Saturn, the Voyager-1 and Voyager-2 space probes are going to shut down some systems to extend their performance until 2030. This was told by NASA employees to Scientific American magazine.

At the moment, Voyager-1 is at a distance of 23.3 billion kilometers from Earth (20 light hours and 33 minutes), and the second device moved away at a distance of about 19 billion kilometers (18 light hours). It takes scientists about two days to send and receive messages from devices.

Both probes were originally designed for five years of operation. However, thanks to the high-quality work of engineers, the devices are working up to the present day, although Voyager-1 currently has only four devices, and Voyager-2 has five. Some experts estimate that the devices could end their useful life as early as 2025 because plutonium, which is used as fuel, decomposes too quickly. NASA officials plan to turn off some of the instruments of the probes in order to extend their work for the maximum possible period.