Hooray (Again) For Voyager! OK – Now Let's Shut it Off.

NASA Voyager Spacecraft Enters Solar System’s Final Frontier

“NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has entered the solar system’s final frontier. It is entering a vast, turbulent expanse, where the sun’s influence ends and the solar wind crashes into the thin gas between stars.”

Voyager 1 Enters Final Frontier of Solar System as NASA Considers Termination, Planetary Society

“… said Executive Director Louis D. Friedman. “It isn’t just false economy to pull the plug on Voyager — it is no economy. The cost savings are a pittance, the potential value is enormous.”

Editor’s note: Great news!! Just as Voyager 1 reaches this impressive milestone, NASA is preparing to shut it off for lack of funds. At least this way, Voyager will go out at the top of its game….

Fear and rambling at NASA, editorial, Nature (subscription)

“Only a confused space agency would consider shutting down the Voyager spacecraft as they approach the uncharted edge of the Solar System. Or cutting the basic research grants that provide the scientific basis for everything it does.”

Transcript of Press Conference with NASA Administrator Michael Griffin 18 April 2005

“Voyager may well outrank others whose time to be turned off really has come. So I’m not making a blanket offer that we’re going to reach a particular answer on any one mission or that we will treat them all as a block. But we are going to consider it carefully before we turn anything off.”

– NASA To Shut Down Two Interstellar Probes, NASA Watch

– Debate Continues About Shutting Down Interstellar Probes, NASA Watch