'The people that built the spacecraft are not alive anymore': NASA admits Voyager spacecraft code is still being maintained — even if barely anyone alive knows how to use the language it's programmed in

NASA Voyager spacecraft.

• Voyager still operates using assembly code written nearly half a century ago
• NASA maintains interstellar spacecraft with less memory than a smartphone image today
• The engineers who built Voyager are disappearing faster than the spacecraft itself

Launches in 1977, NASA's twin Voyager spacecraft continues operating with onboard computers which run assembly language written for custom General Electric processors.