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Voyager Perth, Australia

Get ready to witness a genre-transfiguring quintet take the stage like never before! Hailing from Australia, Voyager has shattered expectations with their resilient and determined attitude. The new album 'Fearless in Love' is next-level prog metal mastery that shatters all archetypes and expectations. Available NOW! ...   more

• voyagerau.com
• Aug 31 Star of the Desert Arena Primm, NV

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Voyager Announce Australian ‘Fearless In Love’ Tour For 2024

The news comes just a month after the Perth band’s eight album made impact.

Voyager (Supplied)

Just over a month after releasing their stellar eighth album, Fearless In Love , Voyager have announced a national headline tour in support of it.

They’ll start off in their hometown of Boorloo/Perth, playing to some 2,000 fans at Metro City on Saturday February 3. The following Thursday (February 8) will see them play 170 Russell in Naarm/Melbourne, and then Meanjin/Brisbane’s Princess Theatre the night after that (February 9). After a short break, Voyager will wrap the tour up with back-to-back shows in Ngambri/Canberra (playing The Basement on Thursday February 22), Eora/Sydney (Manning Bar on Friday February 23) and Kaurna/Adelaide (Unibar on Saturday February 24).

Tickets for all six of the shows go on sale at 10am local time this Wednesday (August 23) following a Live Nation presale tomorrow (August 22). See here for more info on both sales.

Reviewing their last show in Brisbane for The Music , Carley Hall praised Voyager for living up to the recent swathe of hype brought on by the band’s appearance at Eurovision : “If there were ever any suspicions about whether this band’s bark was bigger than its bite,” she wrote, “they’re quickly quashed. Voyager has spent half its lifetime as a band with members coming and going around its mainstay Estrin; the Voyager that we see now on stage have had 10-plus years of playing together – and you can hear and see it in action.”

Fearless In Love arrived on July 14 via Season Of Mist, debuting at #3 on the ARIA Top 50 Albums Chart and earning critical acclaim. In our 4.5-star review , Rod Whitfield called it “something very special”, noting: “ Fearless In Love is one of the albums of the year, no question (it is very likely to be in this scribe’s top three at least), and should go down as an all-time Aussie classic.”

In a recent interview with The Music , Voyager drummer Ashley Doodkorte said the release of Fearless In Love offered the band a sense of “massive catharsis”. He explained: “We've had this album under our belts for over a year now, and it's one we're really excited about and proud of. To finally have it out there, especially after the massive opportunity that was Eurovision, is ridiculously exciting. I think it's definitely the right album for it, too - we've really flexed our songwriting chops on this one.”

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‘FEARLESS IN LOVE’ 2024 AUSTRALIAN TOUR

Saturday February 3 – Boorloo/Perth , Metro City Thursday February 8 – Naarm/Melbourne , 170 Russell Friday February 9 – Meanjin/Brisbane , Princess Theatre Thursday February 22 – Ngambri/Canberra , The Basement Friday February 23 – Eora/Sydney , Manning Bar Saturday February 24 – Kaurna/Adelaide , Unibar

Tickets: livenation.com.au

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One of the best live acts in Australia, Voyager always put on a masterclass when playing at home. With a fan voted set list, they did not disappoint. Danny's vocals were, as always, brilliant. The vocal layering in many songs is taken to another level by the blending and contrasting of Danny and Alex's voices. The band's playing was off the charts. Each member an expert at what they do, genius'taking prog rock to all it's musical limits. But as always it is there interaction between the band members themselves and then with the audience that makes Voyager an experience. You feel like you become part of an unforgettable show. Music to make you soul feel good.

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Energetic, interactive and thoroughly entertaining. Voyager never pull their punches and always deliver in spades when performing live.

I've been lucky enough to see them half a dozen times or so and every gig is better than the last.

Keep an eye and ear out for the medley, it's always a highlight of the show!

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“We were just a progressive metal band going about our business… the next minute we’re on the world’s stage!” But playing to 160 million people hasn’t changed Voyager

Eurovision Song Contest was deep in the Australian heavy synth-prog quintet’s DNA from the start

Many artists would follow a mainstream moment with the most accessible music of their career. However, weeks after finishing in the Top 10 at the Eurovision Song Contest, Voyager have doubled down on their heavy synth-prog with new album Fearless In Love . Ahead of the last-minute cancellation of their 2023 European tour , Singer Danny Estrin, guitarist Simone Dow and bassist Alex Canion tell Prog about life after playing to more than 160 million people.

It’s early June when Prog video-calls Voyager frontman Danny Estrin, guitarist Simone Dow and bassist/singer Alex Canion, and the trio are midway through being smashed back into reality. This time last month, the Perth-based band (rounded out by drummer Ashley Doodkorte and Dow’s co-guitarist Scott Kay) were jet-setting in luxury. They were traipsing across Europe and getting interviewed by countless glossy magazines, all part of the run-up to them representing Australia to more than 160 million TV viewers live at the Eurovision Song Contest. Now they’re back home – and getting hammered by a storm so violent that it routinely wipes out their internet connection and freaks out Canion’s dog, Seamus.

“We played the WA Day festival [in Perth] yesterday,” Dow tells us, camera off to put less stress on the struggling WiFi, “and our booking agent sent us a video of the backstage area after we left. You should have seen the flooding! It was insane!”

Although Mother Nature is trying to quite literally rain on their parade, there’s no denying that Voyager became progressive music’s newest superstars this spring. Eurovision is touted worldwide as an international celebration of top-shelf songwriting (despite it frequently showcasing the most OTT pop possible) – and the synth-prog quintet had been chasing that rainbow from the moment Australia joined, in 2015.

They came tantalisingly close with their pop-prog anthem Dreamer in 2022, finishing second in Eurovision: Australia Decides , the nationally televised competition to select the country’s representative. This year, they finally got sent to the semi-finals when they were held in Liverpool, thanks to the electro- rock singalong of Promise .

Voyager advanced to the grand final and – after an 80s-throwback performance, replete with sequinned jackets, keytar solos and larking about on a Toyota MR2 sports car – finished a massively respectable ninth out of the 20 finalists.

The band couldn’t overcome the litany of public votes for Finnish rapper Käärijä, nor the jury’s collective passion for Sweden’s now-two-time winner Loreen. However, for five people playing prog in the isolation of Western Australia, it marked an underdog triumph.

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“It’s pretty incredible!” Estrin exclaims. “We were just a progressive metal band from Perth going about our business and, the next minute, we’re on the world’s stage! The comedown’s been real, but it’s been dampened by the insane amount of publicity we’ve done. It’s kept that spark of Eurovision alive: we’re selling out shows, particularly in the UK. Eurovision has given us the platform to continue doing what we were doing on a much bigger level.”

The numbers certainly agree. At time of writing, Promise is Voyager’s biggest song, with more than eight million Spotify streams. The music video’s been watched two million times on YouTube, with the footage of that grand final performance firmly in the seven-digit mark.

Estrin’s vow of his band sticking with what they’ve always done going forward isn’t hollow, either. A week before Voyager played Eurovision, they released another single called Prince Of Fire . It was every bit as proggy and high-energy as longtime fans would expect. Plus, with its leaps from synthy verses to sturdy rock choruses, it was powerfully dynamic. No kowtowing to the masses with simpler songwriting or a saccharine ballad here, thank you very much!

“It showed that we hadn’t vastly changed,” Canion says. “I did see some comments when we released Dreamer: people were worried that we were gonna change our sound. But Prince Of Fire is an indication that we’re still the same band. We still have the same melancholy and dark heaviness about us.”

The single, alongside Eurovision entries Dreamer and Promise , appears on Voyager’s eighth album, Fearless In Love . And said album doesn’t just mark Voyager continuing to be Voyager despite the newfound mainstream intrigue: it contains the most out-there and genre-agnostic music of the band’s career.

The Best Intentions opens Fearless In Love with a pulsing dance beat, joined by Estrin’s graceful vocals before the band dive into some heavy, off-kilter rocking. Submarine smacks you into a wall of guitar hefty enough to belong in a TesseracT or Devin Townsend tune, before Twisted ’s synths and irresistible hook feel comparable to Signals -era Rush . That’s all before semi-title track Gren (Fearless In Love) wraps these 45 minutes up with an atmospheric and guitar-powered symphony. It’s arguably the most nuanced, evocative song Voyager have ever put their name to.

“ Fearless In Love is one of our synthiest and most melodic albums, but it’s also the heaviest,” Estrin summarises. “It was during the Eurovision process that we wrote it, so I guess we had a bit more focus on song structures and making sure there’s no extra fluff. We’ve got playful guitar solos and more prog than was on the last album [2019’s Colours In The Sun ].”

Dow adds: “We started writing around the time of Australia Decides and [the release of] Dreamer , and the writing process was very different. We did it all at Scott’s little studio in his house. That way we could edit and change things as we went along, rather than doing it all in the rehearsal studio. Then, when we recorded the album, everything was all done. It’s been a huge process, but it was one of the most rewarding and creative processes we’ve gone through with an album.”

It comes as no surprise that Eurovision hasn’t changed Voyager since Estrin, who formed the band in 1999, says that the contest was one of his very first musical inspirations. He was born in the North German town of Buchholz In Der Nordheide before his family relocated to Perth, and while growing up in Germany, Eurovision and classical music were his two greatest musical loves. “That knack for melody and a really catchy chorus came very early on and stayed with me from the very beginning,” he says. “It’s why I’m the catchy chorus guy in Voyager!”

Estrin started the band at just 18 years old – by which point, he says, “I was living and breathing metal.” As a result, their 2003 debut, Element V , packed more high-speed power metal drumming than later albums. However, it also flaunted a love of operatic melody, prog and keytar playing that still defines their sound to this day.

“The goal was to make music sustainable: to write and record music and tour around the world,” Estrin remembers of the early days. “Living in one of the most isolated cities in the world has made that very, very difficult because, wherever you go, it’s very, very expensive. It’s even more difficult when you play a niche form of music.”

Making things even harder was an Australian underground that seemed more smitten with extreme metal than anything else, as well as Voyager’s revolving-door line-up. Dow (friends with then-guitarist Mark De Vattimo) joined in 2005, six years after the band formed, and is today the second-longest serving member. Canion, who played with Dow in a thrash act called Psychonaut, joined in 2007.

“I immediately recognised that Voyager were one of the top bands in the scene,” the bassist says. “Danny had this X-factor that no other band had. He was driving forward a sound that was almost too daring for the metal scene to adopt.”

By 2012, Kay and Doodkorte had completed the line-up, which hasn’t shifted since. Three years later, with the announcement that Australia would become an honorary competitor in Eurovision, the band began campaigning to represent their country. They started the Twitter hashtag #VoyagerForEurovision and submitted songs every year, to no avail. Even after being the runner-up to singer-songwriter Sheldon Riley on Australia Decides in 2022, though, they were never disheartened. “It was never like, ‘We have to do Eurovision or we’re a failure!’” Estrin says. “It was more like, ‘However far we can get, that’s awesome!’”

Australia Decides was canned in 2023. Instead, Voyager were simply told over the phone by broadcaster SBS that they’d be going to Liverpool. When there, they had the same outlook: a win would be nice, but simply representing prog and band-made music to millions of people is already brilliant enough. “If you’re a Eurovision fan, you know the juries don’t like heavy music, or bands in general,” says Estrin. “So the fact that we came sixth in the jury vote is incredible.”

That casual attitude made its way on screen. When Voyager won the second round of Eurovision’s semi-finals, they sprayed people around them with water that they’d put in a champagne bottle. During the final, almost as talked-about as Promise was the fact that, when the band were given top marks by the Portuguese jury, a camera caught them snacking on some ham sandwiches. Cue memes aplenty across social media.

“It was Marks & Spencer’s, so it was a quality sandwich,” Estrin chuckles. “We were told off after the semi-final for the splash incident, so we thought, ‘If we can’t drink, we’re going to eat something.’ These are gruelling nights and days, so there’s nothing like having a little sandwich in your pocket.”

Voyager were far from the first heavy rock band to play Eurovision. Rock’n’roller Freddy Quinn represented the genre (and Germany) at the inaugural Contest in 1956. Then Finnish masked monster mash Lordi and Italian glam bunch Måneskin won the whole thing in 2006 and 2021, respectively. Even this year, Voyager were contending with German gothic metal quintet Lord Of The Lost, who sadly finished in last place.

However, competing in a mainstream programme mostly reserved for pop singers/songwriters has led to purists sometimes denouncing bands as ‘Eurovision groups’, like it’s a derogatory term. Dow claims Voyager haven’t weathered any such pushback, though.

“The feedback we had during the whole process was super-supportive,” the guitarist says. “People were stoked that we were putting progressive metal on the map. Now, we’ve got sold-out shows across Europe and Australia. You could not ask for anything more than that.”

Currently, Voyager are only weeks removed from Eurovision, but they already have a full touring cycle directly ahead of them. Eager to see their litany of new fans in the flesh, Estrin, Dow and Canion are all impatient to get onto the road. “I hope Eurovision will allow us to keep upgrading with each subsequent tour,” the bassist says. “I hope it’ll let us craft the kind of show that I’ve wanted to put on with Voyager since I joined.”

Looking beyond this year, they want to have a legacy as the band that brought both fearlessness and consistent quality to not just Eurovision, but the broader rock and prog scenes. “I want us to go down as a band that doesn’t sound like anyone else, regardless of at what point you pick up a Voyager album and listen to it,” Estrin states.

“We’ve always done things differently, but we’ve always sounded quintessentially Voyager,” Canion adds. “I think that, now we’re eight albums in, that’s never going to change.”

Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Prog and Metal Hammer, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, NME, Guitar and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.

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Australia's Eurovision Song Contest entrant Voyager finally get to deliver on their 'Promise' in Liverpool

Voyager have had a different sort of journey to get to Eurovision than any of Australia's previous entrants in the world's biggest Song Contest.

For one, they're a band — and we haven't had one of those before. For another, they're a progressive metal band, capable of delivering everything from 80s pop to crunchy metal.

In addition, although the line-up has changed markedly over the band's time, there is nearly a quarter of a century of history there.

The key to their longevity is that, not only have they been able to make seven full-length albums, but they have a solid reputation as a kick-arse live band.

And, aside from Kate Miller-Heidke — who came ninth with Zero Gravity in 2019 —  the Perth-based quintet are the only performers from this country at Eurovision not to come to prominence via a reality TV competition.

So when they take to the stage at Liverpool Arena for their semi-final, seeking a place in Sunday morning's grand final, their song Promise will not look or sound like anything we've sent before.

Of the three students who began Voyager at the University of Western Australia, more than two decades ago, only lead singer Estrin remains in the current line-up — who have been together since 2011 — along with drummer Ash Doodkorte, bassist Alex Canion and guitarists Simone Dow and Scott Kay.

But in addition to their discography, numerous overseas tours and taking their brand of heavy music across the mainland capital cities in Australia over the years gives them priceless experience for taking on the Contest.

Speaking to ABC from London after a series of preview party performances prior to heading to Liverpool, Estrin — whose other job is as an immigration lawyer — puts Voyager's career in perspective.

"It's the overnight success story that's taken 20 years," he says.

"I assess it as training. And I feel sorry for the people who are doing their first or second or third show at Eurovision because it's really, really hard and it's very intimidating. And we've had a lot of practise over the years. 

"It's like you've been practising for years, you've honed your art to a fine finesse and you, you're comfortable. You're comfortable on the shitty stages. On the big stages as well."

Estrin grew up in Germany before moving to Australia with his family when he was 11.

"I remember listening to Eurovision [growing up]. My mum had a double vinyl, the Eurovision winners. It's like this bright blue thing. I remember teaching with the song Ding a Dong (Netherlands, 1975). That was one of my favourites.

"And just that melody and just the kind of vibe of Eurovision being very heavily melody focused. That certainly rubbed off on me because most of the stuff that I was listening to at the time was classical music.

"It was kind of the only exposure I had to any sort of vaguely pop music. And it just continued through my university years and then when we moved to Australia. It [Eurovision] has been a part of me for a very, very long time."

Melody is at the heart of what Voyager does, so they are a good fit for the Contest. While Estrin's desire to make it to Eurovision has been there for decades, other band members caught up later.

But the story of how Voyager finally got the gig to represent Australia is a tale of at least three songs, not one.

Runaway just misses out

Voyager had been sending in songs to the national selection ever since Australia first competed in 2015.

The first one Australia heard was the band's 2020 entry for Australia Decides, Runaway.

As an intro to the band, it made a splash. SBS played a short snippet from the video to highlight songs that didn't quite make the final shortlist for Australia Decides.

The melody is there from the start, with strong guitars and big vocals — but the star of the show is the keytar, as Estrin takes special delivery of one of his trademark instruments in the middle of a Western Australian lake.

That year, Montaigne won Australia Decides with Don't Break Me , but never got to perform it on the big stage, as Eurovision was cancelled due to COVID.

Australia's creative director for Eurovision, Paul Clarke, says Runaway was the 11th-rated song, just missing out on the final 10.

Jury doubts spoil Eurovision hopes for Dreamer

Last year it was Dreamer, with the synth sound, fluoro colours and still a metal edge as well.

"Ash [Doodkorte] and Danny [Estrin] flew over to meet us at the Eurovision — Australia Decides (E-AD) show on the Gold Coast  and they were lovely guys," Clarke says. "We encouraged them to enter the following year and they came up with Dreamer … hearing that song the idea dawned that they were right for Eurovision."

Voyager were a big hit in the live show on the Gold Coast, but in the end they came second in 2022 to Sheldon Riley , who went to Eurovision in Turin performing his big power ballad, Not the Same. 

"[Voyager] won the public vote of E-AD last year, but a few of the judges thought that there would be a lot of rock bands following Maneskin's win [for Italy in 2019] — that often happens and didn't want to be seen that we were going with Voyager to 'copycat'," Clarke says.

"After that, we had a 'preservation of friendship' meeting.

"I encouraged them to have another crack. They came up with the song Promise. I thought it was even better than Dreamer."

Kay talks about the changes between Runaway, Dreamer and Promise.

"I think we've been able to think a little bit more about how the staging and the sort of televised nature of Eurovision alters how we write a song," he says.

"I think we've thought a lot more about how it would translate to a stage rather than just writing it for music's sake. So there's a bit more of an analytical approach, but no less creative."

Canion says:

"The biggest learning curve for us was learning how to become a band for TV. Not for a live audience.

"It's such a different way of performing and something that it was such valuable experience for us. Especially going into to Big Eurovision."

Estrin adds:

"Restraint is really important because if you look at the [2023] Madrid pre-party, we were just so raring to go, we're just like, let all our energy loose. Which is not necessarily the best thing to do.

"But we were just so excited to be playing music rather than talking about it for months that we just had to do it. So I think restraint and control are the big things that we learned from Australia Decides."

Promise fulfilled? Voyager can't wait to find out

The band was told they were finally into Eurovision on a Zoom call with organisers after submitting a demo of Promise. Estrin says the band's drive to make it to the Contest was matched by a desire to get there with the right song.

"The song had to be right. We wouldn't have put our hat in the ring if we weren't behind the song. Cause we spend months talking about it and if you're not sure about it then you don't come across as confident.

"Whereas now we're like, yeah, this is sick. We love this. We love every single second of that and we can talk proudly about it. And I think that's really important that that comes across."

Promise is a cleverly crafted three-minute composition, half-anthem, half Eurovision in a snapshot, designed for the biggest stage.

From one perspective, the band throws everything but the kitchen sink at this. There are 80s-style synths, a classic rhythm section from drummer Doodkorte and bassist Canion, some strong, contrasting vocals from Estrin and Canion, and cracking lead guitar from Simone Dow and Scott Kay.

Then add the trademark keytars and a bit of harpsichord — and a massive metal 'growl' from Canion in the breakdown in the middle and there is something in this for everyone.

The song itself is about how we deal with the stresses of modern life, posing a number of questions along the way.

Have you ever been alone too much? / Have you ever prayed for human touch? / Have you ever just lost a little part of you / To find a little something new?

And the chorus allows the crowd to join in with Estrin's vocal before Canion delivers the fierce 'growl'.

Oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh / Since you told me everything's alright / Oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh / Promise me it's gonna be al…Right! 

The studio version is cohesive, building naturally and nailing a big finish. The normal question that follows at Eurovision is whether entrants can perform live. That is not a concern, here. 

Voyager have played for and with all sorts of rock and metal royalty, from Queensryche to Nightwish, and they have a big fanbase, including in Europe.

Drummer Ash Doodkorte makes the rather brave statement that "nothing could possibly happen to us on stage [at Eurovision] that hasn't happened to us 10 times worse and 20 times before."

Estrin then recalls a moment that happened at one of the pre-party shows in The Netherlands.

"There's this wonderful scene in Spinal Tap where the band is being led down corridors backstage and they get lost and their usher doesn't know where they're going. And it's probably about a five to six-minute sequence where they're just going down this labyrinth, they can't get on stage.

"We had a very similar situation in Amsterdam, so we've certainly had a lot of Spinal Tap moments in our career and let's hope that the actual event at Eurovision doesn't give us another one."

Musically the band can do anything from big, heavy epics to a stripped-back piano ballad, like Summer Always Comes Again. Do they think their versatility helps them hit numerous audiences at Eurovision?

"Yeah, absolutely," says Estrin. "The wonderful thing about metal generally is when people think metal, they think of Cookie Monster vocals and they think of bands like Slayer and those traditional kind of metal bands that are extremely heavy.

"But there are so many metal genres and sub metal genres which have really beautiful melodies which are sophisticated and refined and don't necessarily sound like metal when you listen to it. So this is such a great way for people to discover not only us, but also heavy music.

"Summer Always Comes Again is not a metal song, but it's in the metal category. And what a shame if people go, I don't want to listen to metal and they're missing out on this wonderful song.

"The beauty of us doing Eurovision is people go, hang on, I didn't like metal, but I like this. Maybe I do like metal. Right?"

Canion joins in.

"It's interesting this year that there's a direct comparison with two bands [at Eurovision] that have metal in their name — us and [Germany's] Lord of the Lost.

"We are both technically metal bands, but sound nothing alike. So it's a great way for people to be like, oh okay, well this is metal and this is metal, but they don't sound the same."

Last year Sheldon Riley had to practise singing his number with carrying sandbags to mimic the wearing of his 40 kilo dress that he wore on stage.

What does training for Eurovision look like for Voyager?

"I don't think I'll need sandbags necessarily, but I think maybe a bit more stretches to make sure that when we are jumping around, I don't want to pull a hammy in front of 180 million people and making sure our impeccable costumes don't break," says Estrin.

Doodkorte provides an intriguing visual of proceedings.

"We've been doing rehearsals in big rooms just tied at each other's waists, like a bunch of mountaineers so we don't run too far from each other.

"Cause it's a very big Eurovision stage and we'll want to use all of it, but then we might not be in frame. So it's a bit of forced discipline."

Clarke is confident in what Voyager bring to the table for 2023.

"They're a pretty special band. They are great friends, they write terrific songs, they've got great singers in Danny and Alex, and they have a really irreverent sense of the moment, while understanding how important it is. They will stand out, trust me."

The video for Promise was an open skies number, with Voyager filming at famous WA locations like Nature's Window, for a show-stopping sequence as Simone Dow shreds on the guitar, and then Estrin performs a rapid keytar solo.

Scott Kay describes it as "the ultimate rockstar's dream. Really."

The man tasked with creating an impact in Liverpool is 2023 staging director Marvin Dietmann, who has sorted out the vision for many Eurovision numbers over the years, including the 2014 Contest winner, Rise Like A Phoenix by Austria's Conchita Wurst. 

"It's an interesting song that really encourages a feeling of being by yourself at the start, and builds to a moment that brings everyone together. I love the build – I think Queen would be really happy with the song structure and the solo. So it has to be staging that builds, and relates to them [Voyager]," Clarke says.

Asked if there will be any surprises, Estrin goes straight for one of the cult-hit Eurovision moments of all time, Poland's suggestive visuals from their 2014 entry,  quipping: "I'm going to be churning a lot of butter suggestively on stage."

He follows up by saying the band does have "something a little extra planned".

"I can tell you what ... there's no ice skaters, there's no monster outfits, but it will be something a little bit extra, which I think people will go, that's special, that's pretty speccy. It is Eurovision, after all!"

The elephant in the room is the fact that this is Australia's last year of the contract with the Eurovision Broadcasting Union (EBU) to compete at the Contest, and there are no guarantees we will be back in 2024.

"We sure have done our best to deliver great music, performances and staging. At this stage, our future in the song contest is a live discussion, but it’s no secret we love being part of Eurovision," Clarke says. "Right now, we’re focused on giving the best performance we can with our very first band entry."

Regardless of the result, and the future of the Contest in Australia, those present at Liverpool Arena and the viewers watching and streaming at home can be clear on one thing — Voyager will be putting on a show at Eurovision. And that's a promise.

Australia's Eurovision semi-final is on Friday morning at 5am AEST. ABC will have a wrap of the semi, and will live blog the Grand Final on Sunday from 4:30am AEST.

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The ABBA Voyage live band are looking forward to playing for “multiple years”

Members of the house band spoke to NME about the "dream come true" of being asked to recreate the magic of ABBA

The house live band of the ABBA Voyage digital concerts have spoken to NME about the experience of recreating the magic of the pop legends, and how long they expect to be playing for. Watch our video interview with some of the band above.

• READ MORE:   ABBA Voyage reviewed: an epic avatar mega-mix from a brave new world

Premiering earlier this week  at the purpose-built ABBA Arena in Stratford, East London,  to a delighted response from fans,  the ambitious production sees a “digital” version of ABBA (or ‘ABBAtars’) performing alongside a 10-piece live band ( put together with the help of Klaxons’ James Righton ).

Speaking to NME on the red carpet ahead of the performance, guitarist Dom John said that they were “buzzing, locked in and ready.”

John recalled the first time he met ABBA in rehearsals – when he looked up to find Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson watching him play.

“We played one of their songs, and I was playing both guitar parts and then looked up and realised that Benny and Bjorn were standing right in front of me!” he said. “They just looked at each other and said, ‘Ah maybe we don’t need two guitars’ – then walked away without saying hello or anything.”

As for the visual aspect of the show, John echoed the idea that this is not something that has been seen on stage ever before. “They’re not holograms, that’s old technology!” he said. “This is ABBA Voyage, it’s the future!”

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Asked how long he expected to be performing as part of the show, he replied: “Multiple years, maybe. We’ll see!”

Sarah Burrell, on keys and synth, recalled first getting the call to be part of the band.

“It just seemed like a bit of a dream, really,” she said.  We couldn’t tell if it was real.”

“We’ve rehearsed together quite a lot, so we’ve really got the opportunity to pick on each other’s playing and vibe. We’re just having so much fun up there. t’s been nerve-wracking playing keyboards in front of Benny, that’s for sure.”

As for how long she hoped to be playing with the house band, she added: “We’ll see. There are worse bands to play for?”

Percussionist Tuca Milan agreed that being offered the “dream job” of being part of the ABBA Voyage house band was “the best day of my life”, hailing the band as “the classic of the classic”.

“There is a vibe going,” she said of the chemistry among the players. “They must have really amazing eyes and ears to have picked up each of us. We are very happy working together. It’s been amazing to see how Benny works, and how he leads us”.

As for what to expect from the visual element of the show, she said: “What a great trip. Be ready to have the most amazing visual and sound trip of your life. It’s an experience.”

Speaking to NME last year, former Klaxon James Righton spoke of the challenge of selecting the members of the house band.

“I had to go through my mental memory bank of musicians that I’d played with or that I’d known,” Righton told NME . “I’ve been making music and involved in it for quite some time now, so I know a lot of musicians who’d be able to play this music. I had to put the feelers out very tentatively and confidentially for people who’d be up for the task of being in ABBA’s band.”

Asked about what it took to make the cut, Righton replied: “You not only have to be an incredible musician and professional, but you also need feel, character and groove. It’s really important to find a band of personalities and people with style. When you look back at ABBA footage from the ‘70s, they were always brilliant and had amazing players – like if you go see  LCD Soundsystem  now, for example.”

He continued: “It was a challenge, but a fun one. I care as a fan of their band. If I was going to be a part of it, I wanted to get it right. This band had to step up as being as good as the original line-up.”

Little Boots was also set to part of the ban d , but it missing out on a number of the opening shows for now after having a baby. “Incredible opening night at Abba Voyage for mum’s first night out,” she wrote on Instagram after attending the premiere. “So happy to support my incredible band family who absolutely smashed it.

“Cannot WAIT to be up there sharing the stage with you very soon! So proud to be a part of this game changing project that will bring so much joy to so many people. GO AND SEE THIS SHOW (preferably when I’m off maternity leave) it will change your life.”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by little boots (@littlebootsmusic)

NME also spoke to the producers, director and choreographer of the show about how it all came together.  Asked about how long ABBA Voyage could be set to run for, producer Svana Gisla replied: “I don’t want to jinx it, but if this is a success then we can be here for a few years. We’re on borrowed land, we didn’t break any ground, the arena is moveable and we can pack up and leave when we aren’t wanted anymore.

“I hope the audience wants us to stay for a bit, because we feel like we’ve made something really special.

And could this be the last we see of ABBA now?

“I think this is the final thing,” replied Gisla. “They’re quite genuine in that, but they’ve said that before. I think this is it. It took a lot to make and it was hard work, from us and from them.”

All four members of ABBA also spoke to NME on the red carpet , telling us about the experience of reuniting and what might be on the horizon for the band.

When asked if the concert was a parting gift from the band, Björn Ulvaeus said: “I think this is it. It’s sad to say that but then again, you can always take it back, can’t you? So the answer is, it could be yes, it could be no.”

Meanwhile, Benny Andersson joked: “This is what you’ll see, this is what you’ll get. Then we’ll go home and we’ll sleep.”

In a five star review of ABBA Voyage ,  NME  concluded: “Ageing rockers and poppers are bound to imitate the idea, but it’ll be a struggle to come close to the experience of ABBA Voyage. We for one welcome our new ABBAtar overlords, if only for giving these songs back to us in a totally new and joyful way.”

Visit here for tickets and more information .

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Voyager, NASA’s Longest-Lived Mission, Logs 45 Years in Space

This archival image taken at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on March 23, 1977, shows engineers preparing the Voyager 2 spacecraft ahead of its launch later that year.

Launched in 1977, the twin Voyager probes are NASA’s longest-operating mission and the only spacecraft ever to explore interstellar space.

NASA’s twin Voyager probes have become, in some ways, time capsules of their era: They each carry an eight-track tape player for recording data, they have about 3 million times less memory than modern cellphones, and they transmit data about 38,000 times slower than a 5G internet connection.

Yet the Voyagers remain on the cutting edge of space exploration. Managed and operated by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, they are the only probes to ever explore interstellar space – the galactic ocean that our Sun and its planets travel through.

The Sun and the planets reside in the heliosphere, a protective bubble created by the Sun’s magnetic field and the outward flow of solar wind (charged particles from the Sun). Researchers – some of them younger than the two distant spacecraft – are combining Voyager’s observations with data from newer missions to get a more complete picture of our Sun and how the heliosphere interacts with interstellar space.

NASA’s Solar System Interactive lets users see where the Voyagers are right now relative to the planets, the Sun, and other spacecraft. View it yourself here . Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

“The heliophysics mission fleet provides invaluable insights into our Sun, from understanding the corona or the outermost part of the Sun’s atmosphere, to examining the Sun’s impacts throughout the solar system, including here on Earth, in our atmosphere, and on into interstellar space,” said Nicola Fox, director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Over the last 45 years, the Voyager missions have been integral in providing this knowledge and have helped change our understanding of the Sun and its influence in ways no other spacecraft can.”

The Voyagers are also ambassadors, each carrying a golden record containing images of life on Earth, diagrams of basic scientific principles, and audio that includes sounds from nature, greetings in multiple languages, and music. The gold-coated records serve as a cosmic “message in a bottle” for anyone who might encounter the space probes. At the rate gold decays in space and is eroded by cosmic radiation, the records will last more than a billion years.

45 Years of Voyager I and II

Launched in 1977, NASA’s twin Voyager spacecraft inspired the world with pioneering visits to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Their journey continues 45 years later as both probes explore interstellar space, the region outside the protective heliosphere created by our Sun. Researchers – some younger than the spacecraft – are now using Voyager data to solve mysteries of our solar system and beyond.

This archival photo shows engineers working on vibration acoustics and pyro shock testing of NASA’s Voyager on Nov. 18, 1976. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Voyager 1 acquired this image of a volcanic explosion on Io on March 4, 1979, about 11 hours before the spacecraft’s closest approach to the moon of Jupiter.

Neptune’s green-blue atmosphere was shown in greater detail than ever before in this image from NASA’s Voyager 2 as the spacecraft rapidly approached its encounter with the giant planet in August 1989.

This updated version of the iconic "Pale Blue Dot" image taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft uses modern image-processing software and techniques to revisit the well-known Voyager view while attempting to respect the original data and intent of those who planned the images.

This illustrated graphic was made to mark Voyager 1’s entry into interstellar space in 2012. It puts solar system distances in perspective, with the scale bar in astronomical units and each set distance beyond 1 AU (the average distance between the Sun and Earth) representing 10 times the previous distance.

This graphic highlights some of the Voyager mission’s key accomplishments. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Full image details

This graphic provides some of the mission’s key statistics from 2018, when NASA’s Voyager 2 probe exited the heliosphere. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Full image details

Beyond Expectations

Voyager 2 launched on Aug. 20, 1977, quickly followed by Voyager 1 on Sept. 5. Both probes traveled to Jupiter and Saturn, with Voyager 1 moving faster and reaching them first. Together, the probes unveiled much about the solar system’s two largest planets and their moons. Voyager 2 also became the first and only spacecraft to fly close to Uranus (in 1986) and Neptune (in 1989), offering humanity remarkable views of – and insights into – these distant worlds.

While Voyager 2 was conducting these flybys, Voyager 1 headed toward the boundary of the heliosphere. Upon exiting it in 2012 , Voyager 1 discovered that the heliosphere blocks 70% of cosmic rays, or energetic particles created by exploding stars. Voyager 2, after completing its planetary explorations, continued to the heliosphere boundary, exiting in 2018 . The twin spacecraft’s combined data from this region has challenged previous theories about the exact shape of the heliosphere.

Voyager 1 and 2 have accomplished a lot since they launched in 1977. This infographic highlights the mission’s major milestones, including visiting the four outer planets and exiting the heliosphere, or the protective bubble of magnetic fields and particles created by the Sun.

“Today, as both Voyagers explore interstellar space, they are providing humanity with observations of uncharted territory,” said Linda Spilker, Voyager’s deputy project scientist at JPL. “This is the first time we’ve been able to directly study how a star, our Sun, interacts with the particles and magnetic fields outside our heliosphere, helping scientists understand the local neighborhood between the stars, upending some of the theories about this region, and providing key information for future missions.”

The Long Journey

Over the years, the Voyager team has grown accustomed to surmounting challenges that come with operating such mature spacecraft, sometimes calling upon retired colleagues for their expertise or digging through documents written decades ago.

Each Voyager is powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator containing plutonium, which gives off heat that is converted to electricity. As the plutonium decays, the heat output decreases and the Voyagers lose electricity. To compensate , the team turned off all nonessential systems and some once considered essential, including heaters that protect the still-operating instruments from the frigid temperatures of space. All five of the instruments that have had their heaters turned off since 2019 are still working, despite being well below the lowest temperatures they were ever tested at.

Get the Latest JPL News

Recently, Voyager 1 began experiencing an issue that caused status information about one of its onboard systems to become garbled. Despite this, the system and spacecraft otherwise continue to operate normally, suggesting the problem is with the production of the status data, not the system itself. The probe is still sending back science observations while the engineering team tries to fix the problem or find a way to work around it.

“The Voyagers have continued to make amazing discoveries, inspiring a new generation of scientists and engineers,” said Suzanne Dodd, project manager for Voyager at JPL. “We don’t know how long the mission will continue, but we can be sure that the spacecraft will provide even more scientific surprises as they travel farther away from the Earth.”

More About the Mission

A division of Caltech in Pasadena, JPL built and operates the Voyager spacecraft. The Voyager missions are a part of the NASA Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more information about the Voyager spacecraft, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/voyager

News Media Contact

Calla Cofield

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

626-808-2469

[email protected]

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Joliet man thrown from motorcycle, suffers life-threatening injuries during crash

JOLIET, Ill. - A man was thrown from his motorcycle after a crash in Joliet Tuesday afternoon.

At about 4 p.m., Joliet police officers responded to the intersection of Plainfield Road and Voyager Lane for a traffic crash involving a motorcycle.

While investigating the crash, police determined a Volkswagen Atlas driven by a 39-year-old Romeoville woman was eastbound on Plainfield Road at Voyager Lane in the left turn lane.

The Volkswagen then initiated a left turn towards northbound Voyager Lane and collided with a Suzuki motorcycle driven by a 19-year-old man from Joliet. At the time, the man was westbound on Plainfield Road at Voyager Lane traveling at a high rate of speed.

The man was thrown from the motorcycle after the crash. He was transported to an area hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Additionally, police believe the intersection's stoplight was turning red from yellow at the time of the crash.

No other injuries were reported.

Anyone with video footage or information on this crash is asked to contact the Joliet Police Department Traffic Unit at (815) 724-3193.

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Things are finally looking up for the Voyager 1 interstellar spacecraft

Two of the four science instruments aboard the Voyager 1 spacecraft are now returning usable data after months of transmitting only gibberish, NASA scientists have announced.

I was once sitting with my father while Googling how far away various things in the solar system are from Earth. He was looking for exact numbers, and very obviously grew more invested with each new figure I shouted out. I was thrilled. The moon? On average, 238,855 miles (384,400 kilometers) away. The James Webb Space Telescope ? Bump that up to about a million miles (1,609,344 km) away. The sun? 93 million miles (149,668,992 km) away.  Neptune ? 2.8  billion  miles (4.5 billion km) away. "Well, wait until you hear about Voyager 1," I eventually said, assuming he was aware of what was coming. He was not.

"NASA's  Voyager 1  interstellar spacecraft actually isn't even in the solar system anymore," I announced. "Nope, it's more than 15 billion miles (24 billion km)  away from us  — and it's getting even farther as we speak." I can't quite remember his response, but I do indeed recall an expression of sheer disbelief. There were immediate inquiries about how that's even physically possible. There were bewildered laughs, different ways of saying "wow," and mostly, there was a contagious sense of awe. And just like that, a new Voyager 1 fan was born.

It is easy to see why Voyager 1 is among the most beloved robotic space explorers we have — and it is thus easy to understand why so many people felt a pang to their hearts several months ago, when Voyager 1 stopped talking to us.

Related:  After months of sending gibberish to NASA, Voyager 1 is finally making sense again

For reasons unknown at the time, this spacecraft began sending back gibberish in place of the neatly organized and data-rich 0's and 1's it had been providing since its  launch in 1977 . It was this classic computer language which allowed Voyager 1 to converse with its creators while earning the title of "farthest human made object." It's how the spacecraft relayed vital insight that led to the discovery of new Jovian moons and, thanks to this sort of binary podcast, scientists incredibly identified a new ring of Saturn and created the solar system's first and only "family portrait." This code, in essence, is crucial to Voyager 1's very being.

Plus, to make matters worse, the issue behind the glitch turned out to be associated with the craft's Flight Data System, which is literally the system that transmits information about Voyager 1's health so scientists can correct any issues that arise. Issues like this one. Furthermore, because of the spacecraft's immense distance from its operators on Earth, it takes about 22.5 hours for a transmission to reach the spacecraft, and then 22.5 hours to receive a transmission back. Alas, things weren't looking good for a while — for about five months, to be precise.

But then, on April 20, Voyager 1  finally phoned home  with legible 0's and legible 1's.

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"The team had gathered early on a weekend morning to see whether telemetry would return," Bob Rasmussen, a member of the Voyager flight team, told Space.com. "It was nice to have everyone assembled in one place like this to share in the moment of learning that our efforts had been successful. Our cheer was both for the intrepid spacecraft and for the comradery that enabled its recovery."

And  then,  on May 22 , Voyager scientists released the welcome announcement that the spacecraft has successfully resumed returning science data from two of its four instruments, the plasma wave subsystem and magnetometer instrument. They're now working on getting the other two, the cosmic ray subsystem and low energy charged particle instrument, back online as well. Though there technically are six other instruments onboard Voyager, those had been out of commission for some time.

The comeback

Rasmussen was actually a member of the Voyager team in the 1970s, having worked on the project as a computer engineer before leaving for other missions including  Cassini , which launched the spacecraft that taught us almost everything we currently know about Saturn. In 2022, however, he returned to Voyager because of a separate dilemma with the mission — and has remained on the team ever since.

"There are many of the original people who were there when Voyager launched, or even before, who were part of both the flight team and the science team," Linda Spilker, a planetary scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory , who also worked on the Voyager mission, told Space.com in the This Week from Space podcast on the TWiT network. "It's a real tribute to Voyager — the longevity not only of the spacecraft, but of the people on the team."

To get Voyager 1 back online, in rather cinematic fashion, the team devised a complex workaround that prompted the FDS to send a copy of its memory back to Earth. Within that memory readout, operators managed to discover the crux of the problem — a corrupted code spanning a single chip — which was then remedied through another (honestly,  super interesting ) process to modify the code. On the day Voyager 1 finally spoke again, "you could have heard a pin drop in the room," Spilker said. "It was very silent. Everybody's looking at the screen, waiting and watching." 

Of course, Spilker also brought in some peanuts for the team to munch on — but not just any peanuts. Lucky peanuts. 

It's a longstanding tradition at JPL to have a peanut feast before major mission events like launches, milestones and, well, the possible resurrection of Voyager 1. It  began  in the 1960s, when the agency was trying to launch the Ranger 7 mission that was meant to take pictures of and collect data about the moon's surface. Rangers 1 through 6 had all failed, so Ranger 7 was a big deal. As such, the mission's trajectory engineer, Dick Wallace, brought lots of peanuts for the team to nibble on and relax. Sure enough, Ranger 7 was a success and, as Wallace once said, "the rest is history." 

Voyager 1 needed some of those positive snacky vibes. 

"It'd been five months since we'd had any information," Spilker explained. So, in this room of silence besides peanut-eating-noises, Voyager 1 operators sat at their respective system screens, waiting. 

"All of a sudden it started to populate — the data," Spilker said. That's when the programmers who had been staring at those screens in anticipation leapt out of their seats and began to cheer: "They were the happiest people in the room, I think, and there was just a sense of joy that we had Voyager 1 back."

Eventually, Rasmussen says the team was able to conclude that the failure probably occurred due to a combination of aging and radiation damage by which energetic particles in space bombarded the craft. This is also why he believes it wouldn't be terribly surprising to see a similar failure occur in the future, seeing as Voyager 1 is still roaming beyond the distant boundaries of our stellar neighborhood just like its spacecraft twin,  Voyager 2 .

To be sure, the spacecraft isn't fully fixed yet — but it's lovely to know things are finally looking up, especially with the recent news that some of its science instruments are back on track. And, at the very least, Rasmussen assures that nothing the team has learned so far has been alarming. "We're confident that we understand the problem well," he said, "and we remain optimistic about getting everything back to normal — but we also expect this won't be the last."

In fact, as Rasmussen explains, Voyager 1 operators first became optimistic about the situation just after the root cause of the glitch had been determined with certainty. He also emphasizes that the team's spirits were never down. "We knew from indirect evidence that we had a spacecraft that was mostly healthy," he said. "Saying goodbye was not on our minds."

"Rather," he continued, "we wanted to push toward a solution as quickly as possible so other matters on board that had been neglected for months could be addressed. We're now calmly moving toward that goal."

The future of Voyager's voyage

It can't be ignored that, over the last few months, there has been an air of anxiety and fear across the public sphere that Voyager 1 was slowly moving toward sending us its final 0 and final 1. Headlines all over the internet, one written by  myself included , have carried clear, negative weight. I think it's because even if Voyager 2 could technically carry the interstellar torch post-Voyager 1, the prospect of losing Voyager 1 felt like the prospect of losing a piece of history. 

"We've crossed this boundary called the heliopause," Spilker explained of the Voyagers. "Voyager 1 crossed this boundary in 2012; Voyager 2 crossed it in 2018 — and, since that time, were the first spacecraft ever to make direct measurements of the interstellar medium." That medium basically refers to material that fills the space between stars. In this case, that's the space between other stars and our sun, which, though we don't always think of it as one, is simply another star in the universe. A drop in the cosmic ocean.

"JPL started building the two Voyager spacecraft in 1972," Spilker explained. "For context, that was only three years after we had the first human walk on the moon — and the reason we started that early is that we had this rare alignment of the planets that happens once every  176 years ." It was this alignment that could promise the spacecraft checkpoints across the solar system, including at Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Those checkpoints were important for the Voyagers in particular. Alongside planetary visits come gravity assists, and gravity assists can help fling stuff within the solar system — and, now we know, beyond.

As the first humanmade object to leave the solar system, as a relic of America's early space program, and as a testament to how robust even decades-old technology can be, Voyager 1 has carved out the kind of legacy usually reserved for remarkable things lost to time.

"Our scientists are eager to see what they’ve been missing," Rasmussen remarked. "Everyone on the team is self-motivated by their commitment to this unique and important project. That's where the real pressure comes from." 

Still, in terms of energy, the team's approach has been clinical and determined. 

— NASA's Voyager 1 sends readable message to Earth after 4 nail-biting months of gibberish

— NASA engineers discover why Voyager 1 is sending a stream of gibberish from outside our solar system

— NASA's Voyager 1 probe hasn't 'spoken' in 3 months and needs a 'miracle' to save it

"No one was ever especially excited or depressed," he said. "We're confident that we can get back to business as usual soon, but we also know that we're dealing with an aging spacecraft that is bound to have trouble again in the future. That's just a fact of life on this mission, so not worth getting worked up about."

Nonetheless, I imagine it's always a delight for Voyager 1's engineers to remember this robotic explorer occupies curious minds around the globe. (Including my dad's mind now, thanks to me and Google.)

As Rasmussen puts it: "It's wonderful to know how much the world appreciates this mission."

Originally posted on Space.com .

Monisha Ravisetti is Space.com's Astronomy Editor. She covers black holes, star explosions, gravitational waves, exoplanet discoveries and other enigmas hidden across the fabric of space and time. Previously, she was a science writer at CNET, and before that, reported for The Academic Times. Prior to becoming a writer, she was an immunology researcher at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York. She graduated from New York University in 2018 with a B.A. in philosophy, physics and chemistry. She spends too much time playing online chess. Her favorite planet is Earth.

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Hubble will change how it points, but NASA says 'great science' will continue

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The Hubble Space Telescope in orbit in 1999, just after a servicing mission by astronauts. NASA hide caption

The Hubble Space Telescope is suffering the kinds of aches and pains that can come with being old, and NASA officials say they’re shifting into a new way of pointing the telescope in order to work around a piece of hardware that’s become intolerably glitchy.

Officials also announced that, for now, they’ve decided not to pursue a plan put forward by a wealthy private astronaut who wanted to go to Hubble in a SpaceX capsule, in a mission aimed at extending the telescope’s lifespan by boosting it up into a higher orbit and perhaps even adding new technology to enhance its operations.

“Even without that reboost, we still expect to continue producing science through the rest of this decade and into the next,” Mark Clampin , director of the astrophysics division in NASA’s science mission directorate, told reporters in a teleconference on Tuesday.

Because of atmospheric drag, the bus-sized telescope is slowly drifting down towards Earth. If nothing is eventually done to raise it up, it will likely plunge down into the atmosphere and mostly burn up in the mid-2030’s.

Private mission to save the Hubble Space Telescope raises concerns, NASA emails show

That’s one reason why NASA was so interested when Jared Isaacman, who has previously gone to orbit in a SpaceX capsule, suggested mounting a mission to Hubble as part of a series of technology demonstration spaceflights he has planned.

NASA and SpaceX jointly worked on a feasibility study to see what might be possible for Hubble. The telescope has been in orbit since 1990 and was last repaired 15 years ago, by astronauts who went up in NASA’s space shuttles, which are now museum exhibits.

NASA’s Clampin told reporters that “after exploring the current commercial capabilities, we are not going to pursue a reboost right now.”

He said the assessment of Isaacman’s proposal raised a number of considerations, including potential risks such as “premature loss of science” if Hubble accidentally got damaged.

NASA officials stressed that Hubble’s instruments are healthy and the telescope remains incredibly productive.

“We do not see Hubble as being on its last legs,” said Patrick Crouse , project manager for the Hubble Space Telescope at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “We do think it's a very capable observatory and poised to do exciting things.”

But it will have to do those exciting things with a new way of operating the system it uses for pointing at celestial objects.

That’s because officials have abandoned their efforts to use a glitchy gyroscope that has repeatedly forced the telescope to suspend science and go into “safe” mode in recent months.

Hubble’s pointing system is so precise, NASA says it is the equivalent of being able to keep a laser shining on a dime over 200 miles away for however long Hubble takes a picture – up to 24 hours. This system has long relied on using three gyroscopes at a time.

Now, though, to avoid having to use the sketchy gyro, NASA says Hubble will shift into a one-gyroscope mode of operation, a contingency plan that’s been around for years.

“After completing a series of tests and carefully considering our options, we have made the decision that we will transition Hubble to operate using only one of its three remaining gyros,” Clampin said. “Operationally, we believe this is our best approach to support Hubble science through this decade and into the next.”

The scattered stars of the globular cluster NGC 6355, that resides in our Milky Way, seen in this image from the Hubble Space Telescope ESA/Hubble & NASA, E.Noyola, R. Cohen hide caption

Using only one healthy gyroscope, and keeping one in reserve as a backup, will let the telescope continue to return gorgeous images of the universe, with some limitations. Hubble will be less efficient, for example, and it won’t be able to track moving objects that are close to Earth, within the orbit of Mars.

But Clampin said that “most of the observations it takes will be completely unaffected by this change.”

Astronomers still clamor to use Hubble, with proposals for what to observe far exceeding the available telescope time.

The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope in 2021 did not render Hubble obsolete, as the two telescopes capture different kinds of light.

NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft is talking nonsense. Its friends on Earth are worried

Eventually, NASA will have to decide what to do about Hubble, given that some of its large components would survive re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere. The space agency has long considered sending up some kind of mission that would control its descent and ensure that any Hubble rubble would safely fall into an ocean.

Adding such a propulsion unit would mean that NASA could also boost Hubble’s orbit, enabling it to live longer and take advantage of whatever instruments continued to work. But NASA’s Clampin suggested that there is time to consider options.

“Our latest prediction is that the earliest Hubble would re-enter the Earth's atmosphere is the mid-2030s,” he said. “So we are not going to be seeing it come down in the next couple of years.”

• Hubble Space Telescope