NASA updates Voyager 2 spacecraft from 13 billion miles away to keep it running

NASA sent a software update 13 billion miles to the Voyager 2 spacecraft, shutting down non-essential devices and switching to lower-power backups so its remaining three science instruments stay on through 2026. Without the update, one would have gone dark. Voyager 2's power source — a slowly decaying block of radioactive material — loses about 4 watts of electricity per year.