Nasa scientists are preparing themselves for the worst
Launched in 1977, Voyagers One and Two are now more than 14 billion and 11 billion km from Earth, respectively.
They are on their final mission to locate the boundary between the Sun's domain and interstellar space.
But the agency's Earth-Sun System division has had to cut its budget for next year from $74m to $53m, meaning that some projects will be abandoned.
Although the Voyager probes are thought to have another 15 years of life left in them, they are very expensive to run, costing Nasa about $4.2m a year for operations and data analysis.
Other missions like Ulysses, which was launched in 1990 to explore the Sun's polar regions, might also have to be abandoned after the end of the fiscal year in October.
Although the decision is not yet final, some Nasa scientists are preparing themselves for the worst. Voyager project scientist Edward Stone of the California Institute of Technology told Nature magazine: "We are currently developing a plan for shutdown."
Voyager 2 space probe ''source: NASA''

Interplanetary space probes Voyager 1 and 2, after traveling 28 years
and 14 billion kilometers to the edge of the solar system and the
threshold of interstellar space, face a possible shutdown in October
of this year.

NASA's Earth-Sun System division, which runs the program, amongst
others, has had to cut its budget for next year from 74 million to 53
million dollars, calling for some project abandonments.  The cuts for
Voyager and other missions are planned to help fund President George
W. Bush's "Vision for Space Exploration", his plan to return to the moon
and a manned mission to Mars.

According to the Washington Post, Dick Fisher, NASA's deputy director
for the Earth-Sun division, said the agency based its cuts on a
"senior review" by outside experts, giving Voyager a low priority
among the division's 13 "extended" missions.

It costs NASA $4.2 million a year to run the Voyager science
programs which have an expected operating lifetime to the year 2020.
Both spacecraft function well and continue to return valuable
scientific data.  Most recently, information about massive solar
flares that occurred in 2003 and the resulting shock waves that
traveled through the solar system were detected by Voyager 2 in April
of 2004.

"There are no other plans to reach the edge of the solar system," said
Stamatios Krimigis, on board the Voyager mission since before the
launch in 1977. "Now we're getting all this new information, and here
comes NASA saying, 'We want to pull the plug.' "

Other missions possibly affected by the budget cuts include: Ulysses,
to study the sun; Geotail, Wind, and Polar studying effects of solar
events on Earth; Fast Auroral SnapshoT (FAST), studying Earth's aurora
and the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE), studying solar
atmosphere and magnetic fields.

No final decisions have been made as of yet but are expected to come
sometime this month, possibly by April 15.  Edward Stone of the
California Institute of Technology told Nature magazine: "We are
currently developing a plan for shutdown."