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Mon, Aug 24, 2026

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Voyager 2 was Running Low on Power Until NASA Engineered a ‘Big Bang’ to Buy Another Year

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Voyager 2 was Running Low on Power Until NASA Engineered a ‘Big Bang’ to Buy Another Year

Voyager spacecraft – NASA

NASA engineers found a way to free up power aboard Voyager 2, helping the nearly 50-year-old spacecraft continue its scientific work.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory team decided to simultaneously shut down certain powered components and replaced them with options that use less energy—while also making sure Voyager 2 stayed warm enough to function properly.

Decaying plutonium aboard the Voyager 2 produces electricity from radioisotope thermoelectric generators, and as that plutonium supply steadily diminishes, each spacecraft loses about 4 watts of available power each year.

After nearly half a century in space, both Voyagers (1 and 2) now have extremely limited power to spare. To keep them operating, mission controllers have increasingly had to shut down systems and equipment that are no longer essential.

An Extra Year of Science

Voyager Project Manager Suzanne Dodd commented that the choice to toggle these deeply integrated systems was an inherently risky decision with "no do-overs".

That led the team to adopt the term 'Big Bang' for their plan.

Without the power-saving effort, the Voyager team would have needed to turn off yet another instrument aboard Voyager 2 before the end of 2026.

Since 2024,

Good News in History, August 11

Good News Network
Good News in History, August 11

70 years ago today, Elvis Presley released his first double-sided mega-hit record. With Don't Be Cruel on one side and Hound Dog on the other, the singles went to No.1 and No.2 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, where they stayed at the top for 11 weeks—and set a record that would not be broken for 36 years. LISTEN to the hits on the video below… (1956)

Elvis Presley in 1955 publicity photo

With a combined 55 weeks in the Top 100, not even The Beatles, had a double-sided hit that could challenge the cumulative chart performance of this 45-rpm record.

Hound Dog was named No.19 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time—and is one of the best-selling singles of all time.

 

MORE Good News on this Day:

  • The Eiger in the Bernese Alps was ascended for the first time by Charles Barrington accompanied by Christian Almer and Peter Bohren, who climbed the West face (1858)
  • The city of Florence was liberated from Nazi occupation by

Plant’s First Flower is a ‘Death Bloom’ So Tall the Greenhouse Had to Remove Ceiling Panels

Good News Network
Plant’s First Flower is a ‘Death Bloom’ So Tall the Greenhouse Had to Remove Ceiling Panels

Horticulturist Alberto Trinco with the agave at Birmingham Botanical Gardens by Anita Maric via SWNS

A ten-year-old plant has finally burst into flower for the first time after a decade of care by professional horticulturists—and the stalk was so tall greenhouse had to remove the Roof.

Staff at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens even needed to open the roof after the towering flower spike shot up to more than 18 feet (5.5 meters) in only a few months.

The agave sisalana, which is native to the deserts of Mexico, is now beginning its spectacular final act, known as the 'death bloom', the last stage of its life cycle.

Gardeners installed a 'bloom watch' chalkboard so visitors could anticipate the one and only flowering event will culminate in the plant's death.

The first buds have just opened in the stalk that now pokes through the 19th century greenhouse.

"It will only flower once in its lifetime which is why it's also called the 'death bloom'," said senior horticulturist Alberto Trinco.

"All of the energy goes into the flowering and to produce loads of seeds— and then the plant will die."

Pro Women’s Baseball Returns for First Time Since 1954: A League of Their Own is BACK!

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Pro Women’s Baseball Returns for First Time Since 1954: A League of Their Own is BACK!

Courtesy of WPBL

Almost eight decades after she last played baseball, Maybelle Blair returned to the diamond—in a wheelchair—to inaugurate the new women's US baseball league.

It brought Blair's uniquely American story full circle—and she wasn't going to miss it for anything.

"I tell you, I broke four ribs recently," the 99-year-old told a news crew from WICS. "But nothing was going to stop me from being here—even if I had to crawl."

Maybelle played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League that launched amid the backdrop of World War II and was memorably depicted in the 1992 movie A League of Their Own.

Last weekend, Maybelle, who pitched for the Peoria Redwings during the 1948 season, was on the field in Springfield, Illinois, to help celebrate the first game of the new Women's Professional Baseball League.

The WPBL threw out the first pitch on August 1, seven decades after the old league was disbanded, with four city teams that will play all their games here in Springfield, which once had a franchise in the All-American League.

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