Voyager: NASA starts deactivating deep-space probes flying since 1977 - Business Insider

The epic interstellar journeys of NASA's acclaimed Voyager probes are due to come to an end as the agency starts switching off their systems, Scientific American reported.

The decision to reduce power on the probes is meant to extend their life span a few more years and take them to about 2030, Scientific American said.

The probes are now 12 billion and 14.5 billion miles away from Earth and counting, a live tracker from NASA shows.

The primitive computers onboard the probes don't require much power.

It will be about another 20,000 years before the probes pass the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, with this time capsule of human life, Scientific American reported