NASA's Voyager spacecraft don't actually run on Fortran as popularly believed, but rather assembly language written for custom General Electric processors from the early 1970s. Each spacecraft carries three computer systems with a total of just 64-70KB of memory, making modern programming expertise largely irrelevant for maintenance.

The real problem isn't that engineers are all in their 80s—Larry Zottarelli retired in 2016, but current project manager Suzy Dodd joined in 1984 and leads a younger team. Instead, decades of office moves have scattered or lost most original documentation, leaving the team to reconstruct critical knowledge from fragmented paper records.

Finding qualified replacements proves difficult because assembly programming on custom hardware represents obsolete skills. Younger engineers often lack the inclination to work on a mission with a defined endpoint, especially when documentation gaps require archaeological detective work. The spacecraft themselves face declining power from radioisotope generators, losing roughly four watts annually.

JPL continues turning instruments off to preserve engineering data transmission, which may continue until approximately 2036. The 50th anniversary arrives in 2027, marking both a milestone and a deadline for knowledge transfer before hardware finally fails.