Thrusters, go! Apollo 13 it's not, but NASA found out a way last month to fire up thrusters on the ancient Voyager spacecraft that haven't been used in 37 years. It's a neat story:

If you tried to start a car that's been sitting in a garage for decades, you might not expect the engine to respond. But a set of thrusters aboard the Voyager 1 spacecraft successfully fired up Wednesday after 37 years without use.

Voyager 1, NASA's farthest and fastest spacecraft, is the only human-made object in interstellar space, the environment between the stars. The spacecraft, which has been flying for 40 years, relies on small devices called thrusters to orient itself so it can communicate with Earth. These thrusters fire in tiny pulses, or "puffs," lasting mere milliseconds, to subtly rotate the spacecraft so that its antenna points at our planet. Now, the Voyager team is able to use a set of four backup thrusters, dormant since 1980.

"With these thrusters that are still functional after 37 years without use, we will be able to extend the life of the Voyager 1 spacecraft by two to three years," said Suzanne Dodd, project manager for Voyager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

Since 2014, engineers have noticed that the thrusters Voyager 1 has been using to orient the spacecraft, called "attitude control thrusters," have been degrading. Over time, the thrusters require more puffs to give off the same amount of energy. At 13 billion miles from Earth, there's no mechanic shop nearby to get a tuneup.

Way to go, NASA!

No Ordinary Joe. Dartmouth's alumni magazine has a worthwhile read on the life of Joe Rago, a Pulitzer winner who died far too young.

But when those walls come down to reveal the full man, Joe emerges as one who contained multitudes. He was a sardonic writer, but also a thoughtful artist. He was an intense polymath, but also a playful frat boy. He was nostalgic for the past and all things “Old School,” but also found joy in the world as it was. His life was short, but he lived more in less than four decades than most people do across the span of nine. One of his favorite words—appearing frequently in the marginalia of his books—was “hilarious.” His motto: “What’s the point if you’re not going all out?”

Be sure to read the whole thing. 

How the onions get made. I bought a bag of onions over the weekend and thought the name of the farm, Bland Farms, was a joke. After all, onions aren't bland! I logged on to the webpage of the farms and, sure enough, it's a family farm! On their webpage, the farm has a slickly produced video explaining their history and how they produce onions. It only has 150 views, which is criminal, given how interesting the content is. If you ever care how your food gets to your table (even if it's a $2 bag of onions) this is the video for you.

McSweeney's nails it. This item is a deserving mockery of the East Coast press regarding how coverage of Midwestern or Rust Belt Trump supporters comes off. 

Babe Turns a Movement Into a Racket. At the Atlantic, Caitlin Flanagan does it again with a barbed critique of how the feminist webzine accidentally stifled efforts to expand the #MeToo movement past the workplace. 

—Jim Swift, Deputy Online Editor

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