[Enchante]

Apparently it’s that those particular thrusters had not been used in 37 yrs. The article confused me, too. I thought they meant that Voyager 1 had been incommunicado all that time.

[21twelve]

That's what I thought too - so it raised the issue to me of if it hasn't communicated in 37 years, how would they know how to reorient it to be able to communicate? I can't imagine it would have maintained whatever position it had been in.

I'm guessing it is more sophisticated than “Okay Harry - still no signal, try thruster #3 a titch more.”

I dated a gal back in NJ (heck - she's my wife now!). Her family had a motorized antenna up on the roof, with a little dial by the TV to move it around. If you wanted the news about murder you would aim it towards NYC. For fires you would aim it towards Philadelphia.