Vroom - All Systems Down

Summary

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Snap Judgment – "Vroom: All Systems Down"

Air Date: July 9, 2026
Host: Glynn Washington
Producers: Bo Walsh, John Fasile
Featured Guests: Katherine and Sam Dutcher, MN State Trooper Zach Groover, NASA’s Suzanne Dodd

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Episode Overview

This episode of Snap Judgment kicks off the four-part "All Systems Down" series, telling stories where everything fails and help isn’t coming. This installment, "Vroom," delivers two gripping tales. First is the real-life story of 18-year-old Sam Dutcher, whose family SUV’s computer system malfunctions at highway speed—leaving him in a runaway car, racing for his life on rural North Dakota roads. The second half pivots to deep space, chronicling NASA’s scramble to recover contact with the Voyager 2 spacecraft after a critical error severs their billion-mile link. Both segments probe the question: When you can’t count on the system, what do you do next?

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Segment 1: Runaway Car in Fargo – The Dutcher Family Crisis

(Start ~03:33)

Setting the Scene

• Katherine Dutcher drops her 18-year-old son, Sam, off to pick up their recently repaired Honda Pilot.
• The vehicle had previously accelerated uncontrollably, but the mechanic assured them it was "good to go."

  "They had driven multiple hours and... it was fine. And nothing was found with it... It should be just fine." (Katherine, 04:02)

The Malfunction

• Sam begins the short drive home. The car accelerates by itself when hitting a 55 mph zone—and won’t stop.

  “I backed off to stay at 55. It kept going. So then I took my foot off completely... It kept going.” (Sam, 05:12)

• Sam frantically tries everything: brake pedal, emergency brake, shifting to neutral, park, reverse, and holding the power button. The car ignores all commands.

  “The car’s computerized system ignored everything he did. It was calling the shots.” (Bo Walsh, 06:06)

Realization and Panic

• Only steering works. Sam, unable to dial 911 safely, uses voice command (fails), then calls his mom.

  “My phone said that number [911] is not in your contacts. So I called my mom.” (Sam, 06:44)

• Katherine knows immediately: “When he said it was happening again, I knew exactly what he was talking about.” (Katherine, 06:57)
• Using a family tracker app, she sees Sam’s speed hit 80+ mph.

  “We have a Life360 app... I was able to look and see where he was at and how fast he was going.” (Katherine, 07:24)

Emergency Services Respond

• Katherine calls 911; police and dispatch scramble to understand and respond.

  “Well, this is going to sound absolutely crazy, but...” (Katherine to 911, 08:19)

• Law enforcement, unsure how to stop the vehicle, contact Sam directly. He recounts their step-by-step troubleshooting over the phone.

  “He asked me, hey, did you try hitting the power button? Did you try the E brake?” (Sam, 12:30)

High-Speed Ordeal

• Sam speeds down a rural road, forced to overtake slower vehicles.

  “I was passing on the shoulder... where it’s pretty much loose gravel, the tire starts spinning in, losing traction.” (Sam, 10:44)

• The only thing protecting Sam and others: his focus and adrenaline.

  “I was really tensed up. My hands were locked on that wheel.” (Sam, 11:46)

• Main concern: being mistaken for a fleeing suspect by police.

Failed Stop-Stick Plan

[~14:47-15:34]

• Police consider deploying spike strips, but can’t get far enough ahead due to his speed.

  “We can’t do that. We can’t get far enough ahead of you.” (Sam quoting police, 15:24)

Memorable Moment:

“Saying goodbye was kind of scary in the sense of I didn't know what was happening next.”
— Sam Dutcher, 09:57

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[Ad Break/Transition] (skip per instructions)

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Segment 2: The Pursuit – Law Enforcement’s Dilemma

(Restart ~19:07)

The Chase Accelerates

• MN State Trooper Zach Groover picks up the call about a runaway car headed into Minnesota.

  “It poses a very major traffic safety issue...If you get t-boned at 80 miles an hour, it’s not gonna be good.” (Groover, 20:26)

• Groover races at up to 141 mph in his Dodge Charger to try and intercept Sam. Even at that speed, Sam is pulling away in the runaway Honda.

Near-Disaster at Intersection

[23:54-26:24]

• Trooper Groover gets ahead in time to block cross-traffic at a major intersection, preventing a high-speed collision.

  "It turned from like, we're gonna get in front of him to put sticks down to, I need to get up there and block this intersection so he doesn't t-bone a car." (Groover, 24:00)

• Sam squeezes through—a narrow, terrifying escape.

  “Very scary. ‘Cause at those speeds if you make one mistake, things will go wrong.” (Sam, 26:00)

The Road Runs Out

• Sam approaches a T-intersection; if unchecked, he’ll crash at over 100 mph.

  “It was a steep slope at the end I would just crash into.” (Sam, 28:13)

• Law enforcement considers a PIT maneuver (nudging the car to spin it out), but at such speeds, it would likely be fatal.

  "We don't train at those speeds... we don't really know what's going to happen." (Groover, 33:36)

The Final Plan

[34:32-39:02]

• Groover proposes getting immediately in front of Sam, slowing down so Sam’s car “softly” impacts his to stop both vehicles.

  “Just get in front of him and...Let him kind of just make soft contact and just ride the brakes down...” (Groover, 34:32)

• Communication delay almost derails plan; Sam initially tries to avoid hitting the cop car.
• Finally, told by the deputy:

  “So I want you to hit the car that's gonna pull up in front of you. You want me to what? ... That's not something I really care to do.” (Sam, 36:40)

• The Honda’s collision detection auto-brakes activate for the first time, slowing Sam’s car as it nearly contacts Groover’s.

  "Why did every other safety feature on this vehicle fail, but that one worked?" (Sam, 37:18)

• At 20mph, Sam’s car hits Groover’s, and both come to a full stop.

  "When he hit me, I think that I was doing about 20 miles an hour. And once he hit me, I just dynamited the brakes." (Groover, 38:40)

Memorable Moment:

"I got out of the car, then I went and sat in the grass and just. Just sat there...My brain kind of just broke. I was kind of just in a sensory overload."
— Sam Dutcher, 39:58

Aftermath

• Sam is uninjured, emotionally shaken. His mother arrives, overwhelmed with relief.

  “I was thinking, God, thank you, God, for not killing my kid. Thank you for...keeping him safe.” (Katherine, 41:34)

• Trooper Groover, whose wife was nine months pregnant, risked his life to save Sam.

  "He put his life on the line to save my son, knowing that he had his first one on the way, like, that was even more, like, amazing to me." (Katherine, 42:11)

• Sam:

  "It felt like a miracle. Very much so." (Sam, 41:34)

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Segment 3: Echoes in Deep Space – Saving Voyager 2

[44:31 – 61:09]

Setting

• Producer John Fasile visits NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab to meet Suzanne (Suzy) Dodd, manager of the Voyager program.
• Voyager 1 & 2, launched in 1977, are Earth’s interstellar scouts—each carrying a golden record meant for any aliens who might find them.

Susie’s Relationship with Voyager

• On “talking” to the spacecraft:

  "I like to describe them as twin sisters...over the years, different things have broken on them." (Susie, 47:15)

• Now over 13 billion miles from Earth.

The 2023 Crisis: When a Typo Disconnects Earth

• July 2023: Susie’s team sends a command to Voyager 2 to adjust its antenna. Due to a typo, the wrong command is sent, pointing the dish away from Earth.

  "It was a typo. A typo had taken out contact with Voyager 2." (Susie, 54:12)

• They scramble—losing contact for two weeks with humanity’s only link to interstellar space.

Reconnecting – The “Shout”

[57:19-59:03]

• The only way is via the massive 70-meter dish in Canberra, Australia:

  “A Rose Bowl-sized satellite dish trying to talk to Voyager 2’s dish, which is about the size of a hot tub.” (Susie Dodd, 57:01)

• The team “shouts” a corrected command across billions of miles:

  “You better believe we had like 10 people review the command...” (Susie, 58:15)

• Two days later, Voyager 2 responds. Relief—and lingering frustration at the initial error.

  "Very relieving. I was still mad we had done it. But I was relieved that we were able to recover the spacecraft." (Susie, 60:00)

The Legacy and Future of the Voyagers

• Both probes are still operational but “on borrowed time.”

  “Voyager will be gone in five, six years. We'll either run out of power or we'll freeze. That's going to be the end of it.” (Susie, 60:29)

• Susie feels both pride and sadness; her career began—and will end—with Voyager.

  "My career will definitely end on Voyager." (Susie, 60:42)

Notable Quotes:

• "Against all expectations, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are still out there. Over 13 billion miles away and they're still talking to us." (Susie Dodd, 60:12)
• "The blame comes later." (Susie Dodd, 55:31)
• "There wasn't an easy Plan B for sure." (Susie Dodd, 58:50)
• "I'm not expecting any aliens to contact me after I retire. Though they'll probably contact Voyager first." (Susie Dodd, 61:09)

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Key Themes and Takeaways

• System Failure: Both stories focus on systems literally and figuratively going down—something as domestic as a family car, or as cosmic as a 12-billion-mile space link.
• Human Resourcefulness: When these systems fail, it's up to individuals and communities—Sam, his mother, first responders, NASA scientists—to stay calm and creative under extreme pressure.
• The Power of Community: Both Sam and Voyager 2 are only saved through coordinated, collaborative effort.
• Vulnerability and Resilience: In both crises, the failure could have been catastrophic. Successful outcomes hinge on stubborn persistence and moments of luck (or, as Sam calls it, "a miracle").

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |-------------|----------------------------------------------------------| | 03:33 | Introduction to Sam Dutcher’s “runaway car” story | | 05:12 | Car accelerates uncontrollably | | 07:24 | Mother tracks Sam’s speed/location via app | | 09:57 | Sam’s “goodbye” call; emotional peak | | 14:47 | Police contemplate using spike strips | | 19:40 | Trooper Groover enters the chase | | 24:00 | Near-miss at major intersection | | 28:13 | Sam approaches dangerous T-intersection | | 34:32 | Officers hatch their final, risky plan | | 38:40 | Sam’s car contacts Groover’s; both come to a stop | | 41:34 | Aftermath—emotional family reunion | | 44:31 | Segment 2: The Voyager Crisis begins | | 54:12 | “A typo had taken out contact with Voyager 2” | | 58:15 | “Shout” command sent to Voyager 2 | | 60:00 | Voyager 2 responds; relief for the team | | 61:09 | Reflections on the end of the Voyager era |

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Closing Reflection

This episode exemplifies Snap Judgment’s compelling blend of human drama—one earthbound, one galactic. Whether barreling down a North Dakota road in a rogue Honda or sweating over radio waves at the edge of interstellar space, the message remains: Sometimes the only way out is ingenuity, calm, and the hope that, somewhere at the edge, someone’s listening.

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Transcript

[Narrator/Host (Glenn Washington)]

Snap Studios. When the system crashes, when the first responders can't respond, when you're left all alone, what do you do? For the next four weeks on Snap Judgment, we're sharing stories of people trying to think their way out of situations where no help is coming. A deep space pro, a teenage driver, a surf legend, the father of the bride. All of them. You're just gonna have to figure it out because this July on Snap Judgment, it's all systems down. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. You're listening to this podcast, so I know you've got a curious mind. Here's a helpful fact you might not know yet. Drivers who switch and save with Progressive save over $900 on average. Pop over to progressive.com, answer some questions and you'll get a quick quote with discounts that are easy to come by. In fact, 99% of their auto customers earn at least one discount. Visit progressive.com and see if you can enjoy a little cash back. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates national average 12 month savings of $946 by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2024 and May 2025. Potential savings will vary. Did you know there's an online cannabis company that ships federally legal THC right to your door? And they found a way to combine THC with carefully selected functional ingredients to create gummies, baked goods, drinks to set your mood right. I'm talking about mood.com and you can get 20% off your first [e-mail] with promo code SNAP. Forget the one size fits all supplements, dial in what you're looking for like Mood's cherry lime soda. The perfect balance of citrus and stone fruit. With the boost of premium thc, everything ships discreetly right to your door. No dispensary lines, no awkward conversations, and best of all, not only is every Mood product backed by a hundred day satisfaction guarantee, but as I mentioned, listeners get 20% off their first order with code SNAP. So head to mood.com, find the functional gummy that matches exactly what you're looking for and let Mood help you discover your perfect mood. And don't forget to use promo code SNAP when you check out. To save 20% on your first order, try [e-mail] we begin in the cold for the brand new Snap Judgment series. All systems down. When everything is falling apart, what do you do? We're headed out to a land called Fargo. Actually West Fargo, a place where winter is coming, the roads get slick, and every now and then something strange comes Roaring out of the snow. But Snappers. This is not just another Fargo story. This one is true. The events took place in West Fargo, North Dakota in 2024. The names have not been changed, the voices are not altered. This is how it went down. Snap producer Bo Walsh brings us the tale. Snap judgment.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

Katherine Dutcher and her 18 year old son Sam were out running errands on a Tuesday evening in September. She needed to pick up dinner, so Katherine asked Sam if she could drop him off at the auto repair shop to get the family car.

[Katherine Dutcher (Mother)]

We had gotten a call earlier that day that they wanted us to pick up the Honda and take it home.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

Their pilot had been acting quirky, but the mechanic told Katherine that it was good to go.

[Katherine Dutcher (Mother)]

They had driven multiple hours and a considerable amount and it was fine. And nothing was found with it that it probably was okay. And it was less than 10 minutes to get to our house. From there we figured it was a very short drive and that it should be just fine.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

What could happen in 10 minutes?

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

Sam got behind the wheel, adjusted the seat and mirrors and pushed the power button. The engine started, no problem, all systems normal. He pulled off the lot and started the 10 minute drive home.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

It was still relatively bright out. The sun was starting to go down, but it wasn't dark at all. I drive probably half a mile and there's some farmland on my right side. Left side there's houses.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

About a mile from his parents house. Driving on a two lane road in Cass county, the speed limit switched from 40 to 55. Sam accelerated, then eased off the gas.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

I backed off to State 55. It kept going. So then I took my foot off completely and then it kept going. When I realized this wasn't slowing down, I was just focused on getting it stopped.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

This Honda Pilot wasn't interested in stopping. It was speeding up.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

Initially I tried holding the brake and then holding it and hitting the E brake. Then I tried pumping the brakes. Then I tried putting it into neutral and nothing happened. Then after that I just tried park reverse. And at that point I realized this thing's not gonna stop.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

The car's computerized system ignored everything he did. It was calling the shots. Finally, he hit the power button and held it in. The car just kept going faster.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

I'm watching the road thinking, I don't know what to do. I can't get stopped. The only thing I had control over was steering.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

Now moving at 80 miles per hour, Sam didn't want to take his eyes off the road to dial 911 on his phone. So he tried to place the call through voice commands.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

My phone said, that number is not in your contacts. So I called my mom. She was in the Hardy's drive through when I called her, saying, hey, it's happening again.

[Katherine Dutcher (Mother)]

And when he said that it was happening again, I knew exactly what he was talking about.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

The car had accelerated on its own once before. That's why they'd taken it in.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

I thought it was maybe gonna stop because it stopped very, very quickly the first time.

[Katherine Dutcher (Mother)]

You know, we talked through, like, where are you? Can you get it to stop?

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

And then I explained to her that the brakes aren't working.

[Katherine Dutcher (Mother)]

We have a Life360 app on our phone, so I was able to look and see, like, where he was at and how fast he was going at that point in time.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

At that point, she knew it was only going 80. I know I can control a car at that speed.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

The car was racing east down a rural road that didn't have traffic lights in the northern Fargo area approaching the Minnesota state line. Sam wasn't just afraid of crashing into another car or careening off the road.

[Katherine Dutcher (Mother)]

His big concern was that if a law enforcement officer were to see him, they would think that he was fleeing them.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

Because on that road, I do know that there's a sheriff that drives back and forth.

[Katherine Dutcher (Mother)]

And at that point, I told him that I was going to get off the phone and I would call 911 and notify them. So I quickly hung up and called 911 and inform them of what was going on.

[911 Operator]

Well, this is going to sound absolutely crazy, but. So we've been having problems with my car. We took it to the shop because we had an incident where the accelerator stopped and it wouldn't stop. We managed to get it stopped. They have had the car for, like, a week. They said it's just fine. Well, my son is driving the car currently because I'm in the loaner car, and he is going down 2017. He can't get the car to slow down or stop, and he's going about 80. 80 miles an hour.

[Katherine Dutcher (Mother)]

They probably thought it was crazy.

[911 Operator]

He's worried they're gonna try to come over because he can't stop. He truly cannot. Okay. No, I understand.

[Katherine Dutcher (Mother)]

It was just so surreal that I think initially it was like, even though we knew it was happening, it felt like it was such a weird dream that I really didn't feel anything much at all other than, oh, I better, like, let them know this.

[911 Operator]

Okay. It looks like we did let an officer, my partner here, let an Officer in the area know already. So I'm gonna advise you to not call your son back in case our we here try to get ahold of him or the officer tries to call him directly to give him directions. Okay.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

My mom called me back. She wasn't supposed to, but she did.

[Katherine Dutcher (Mother)]

I called him very briefly just to explain, they're calling you. They're gonna tell you what to do. You need to. And basically said I loved him. And I hung up because I didn't want to interfere with their call. But I also wanted him to know that it's very important that you do answer them.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

Saying goodbye was kind of scary in the sense of I didn't know what was happening next.

[Clay County Deputy]

On 98th Avenue crossing Street North 104

[911 Operator]

east down 90th Avenue crossing. I'll tack one in place for the pilot.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

Was now on 90th Avenue, the straightest road in the area.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

It was pretty quiet for the most part. There were a few cars, but it's not a big roadway. It was just beat trucks pretty much that were on the road, some of them semis.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

But it was only two lanes. And soon Sam started to overtake cars and trucks that were going much slower than him.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

It's really narrow, only wide enough for two cars. People realized something's not right. A lot of it. There was a good chunk of oncoming traffic. So I was passing on the shoulder. Not nicely by any means, but it was enough for him to get around the vehicle. That was scary because going around on the shoulder where it's pretty much loose gravel, the tire starts spinning in, losing traction.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

The only thing to his right off of the shoulder were 20 foot ditches.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

It was terrifying because those ditches were steep. So I would have just rolled. Not pleasant.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

The pilot was now going over 90 miles per hour and every maneuver put Sam at risk of losing control.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

There's a turn there that wasn't nice to make it that speed. I was really close to spinning out there. It is difficult to keep the wheel straight at that speed. I was really tensed up. My hands were locked on that wheel, not really letting go of it. As long as I kept control, the vehicle didn't spin out.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

Katherine Dutcher had given her son's cell phone number to the 911 operator who transmitted it from the dispatch center.

[911 Operator]

104 just advising. I also attempted to call Sam.

[Clay County Deputy]

I'm on the phone with him.

[911 Operator]

10 4.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

Within moments, Sam was on the phone with a Clay county deputy.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

He asked me, hey, did you try hitting the power button? Did you try the E brake.

[Clay County Deputy]

Yeah, it doesn't work either.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

Did you try neutral? Which. The answer to all those was yes.

[Clay County Deputy]

I had him try and shift it to neutral. Driving. I'm trying to tell. So it's a push button to stop it, but it's not allowing it to shift or turn it off.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

After he went through those steps, I think he might have been a little stumped on, like, what to do next.

[Clay County Deputy]

30, 70 Adam, try to hit that e brake and it won't do anything. Correct. E brake doesn't do anything. He said it's slowing down about two miles an hour, but that's it. And like I said, you can't change it to neutral or get the power off.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

I could hear, like, the resonance of the radio and that buzz that the radio makes. I didn't like that, that they were going back and forth.

[Clay County Deputy]

37. How much gas does they have left? There's 34 miles now, but I knew it was.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

Was very serious. It's to the point where it's not just one or two officers. It's multiple, and they are trying to figure out what they want to do about it. And really, I didn't think they exactly knew what to do in this situation because this stuff doesn't happen very often.

[Katherine Dutcher (Mother)]

My only thought was, like, if no one can get this car to stop, if he can't do emergency brakes, if he can't turn it off, if he can't jam it, how in the world are they going to get this car to stop? I had hoped that it'd be kind of a replay of that very first brief situation where it was able to just be stopped quickly. So I think on some level, like, my denial kicked in that it's like, well, you know, this will probably be okay to figure out what to do.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

As Sam blew through the intersection at Highway 75, the officers on the radio moved on to the next option.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

They told me directly, here's what we're going to do. We're going to put spike strips out, and you're going to drive over it to pop the tires and let them

[Clay County Deputy]

know, I'm going to push sticks out. Please take the tires off. So that should slow them down. Make sure he hits them.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

I guess when those tires pop, you. You lose traction and most of the time will spin out. Like, even if just one blew at that speed.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

But first, someone would need to get ahead of Sam to lay down the strips with metal spikes.

[Clay County Deputy]

I'm gonna try to get sticks out there, but I don't think I'm gonna get there in time.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

What I was told on the phone was we can't do that. We can't get far enough ahead of you.

[Narrator/Host (Glenn Washington)]

No breaks on this ride. Snappers. How long can Sam keep his eyes on the road and his hands on the wheel? Find out on Snapchat Returns.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

This is Tonya Moseley, co host of Fresh Air. You'll see your favorite actors, directors and comedians on late night TV shows or YouTube, but what you get with Fresh Air is a deep dive. Spend some quality time with people like Billie Eilish, Questlove, Ariana Grande, Steven Stephen Colbert, and so many more.

[Katherine Dutcher (Mother)]

We ask questions you won't hear asked anywhere else.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

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[Narrator/Host (Glenn Washington)]

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[911 Operator]

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[Clay County Deputy]

It's going to be a 2022 Honda Pilot, white in color, going about 80 mph. The complainant sun is going to be the one. The one driving reaching speeds of 90 to 100 mph cannot slow down or stop the vehicle.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

Shortly after 5pm Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover was on his way to turn in a receipt for an oil change he'd gotten earlier that day on his department issued Dodge Charger when he heard the dispatcher relay the call on the radio.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

We're right on the border of Fargo and moreheads of North Dakota, Minnesota. So I was about 20 miles into Minnesota. It was kind of just a, hey, we've got a runaway car and it's coming into Minnesota.

[Clay County Deputy]

Can you see if Becker or anybody would be in the area to hopefully help us on the county line if we get there?

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

Hey, I'm about 20 miles in front of this thing and probably about seven or eight miles to the east of kind of the next major intersection that that car's coming at. So I figured I can go a little bit faster than 80 miles an hour with my lights and sirens on and we'll see if I can get up there and get this bike strip set down.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

He wasn't gonna bother to ask anyone if he should get involved.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

Our policy states that we have to be requested. But then, you know, something, something like this is kind of a, it poses a very major traffic safety issue when you've got a car that can't stop going through intersections at 80 miles an hour. So it really does kind of become a life and death, death thing because if, you know, you get t boned at 80 miles an hour, it's, it's not gonna be good.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

Groover hit the gas and came up Highway 9, but couldn't quite get to the intersection ahead of Sam. He saw the lights of Cass county police cars in pursuit of the pilot Zoomed by as he approached from the south.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

I hadn't seen Sam go by. I just saw the. The red and blues go by. So at that point, it was kind of just a race to who was going to get to the intersection faster.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

The officers were driving larger cars, Chevy Tahoes.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

They were doing about 80 miles an hour. That's not gonna really work. And then that's kind of when the. It switched in my head, like, okay, we're gonna get. Try to get in front of him.

[Clay County Deputy]

Got a trooper behind you, and then you got one of the clay deputies. We're gonna try to send that trooper in front to get some sign.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

Groover's charger had a 300 horsepower engine and could go a lot faster than the Tahoes. So we came up behind them and floored it.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

Once we got up to the road that they were on, I believe it took me about a minute to catch up to the Cass County Deputy.

[Clay County Deputy]

35, 68. I mean, he's coming around. If you just want to give me some room.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

My top speed on that road was around 130.

[Clay County Deputy]

219. Pass. Deputy, I'm coming up on your left. Pass.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

And then I went around him, and that was kind of the moment where it's like, there's no car here. Where is this car?

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

When he passed the other officers in the left lane, the pilot was nowhere to be found. Sam was going so fast that he had pulled away from the police cars in pursuit. Groover went as fast as the Charger would let him.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

You know, just kind of going pedal to the metal. And I could see tail lights up ahead. And then finally, when I was able to, I hit my front radar. And once I was able to get a speed on him, he was doing 113. And it was kind of like a. Oh, okay. He's not doing 80 miles an hour.

[Clay County Deputy]

37. Still on the phone with him, I

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

saw in my mirrors the red and blue flashing lights. Knowing they were there definitely brought a little bit of peace of mind, because it means that they have caught up

[Clay County Deputy]

to me.290 to get in front of them, yet I'm right behind them. We're in the hills. I don't want to pass. We're doing one third kissing.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

He was quite a ways ahead of me, so I really wasn't directly behind him for very long.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

I remember him going around me on the side with the lights on at that point.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

I passed him just before we got into the town of Hderdalt.

[Clay County Deputy]

Two 90s in front of him. We're just hit city hitterhall.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

Before he could think about getting far enough ahead of Sam to drop the stop sticks, Groover realized they were coming up on the intersection with Highway 32 in the town of Hiderdall.

[Clay County Deputy]

Has a very busy intersection. Might be worth you shooting in front of him. I'm just blocking it so he can continue straight through it.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

It turned from like, we're gonna get in front of him to put sticks down to. I need to get up there and block this intersection so he doesn't t bone a car. Coming through at 113.

[Clay County Deputy]

37 there. Clay County, 90th Avenue North, 53 eastbound. 90 miles an hour. No brakes.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

I didn't know what was happening. I didn't know what was going on. I didn't know what was going to happen next. But what I did know was up until the end of the road or until I lost control, it was going to continue driving.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

By now, the sun had set. Visibility was getting worse. To further complicate things, Sam was headed for an intersection where the oncoming cross traffic didn't have a spot stop sign.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

It's an uncontrolled intersection going north and south. After you go through that intersection is a set of railroad tracks that's pretty frequently blocked by trains.

[Clay County Deputy]

Central copy. Just advising. They're going through stop signs eastbound along 90 90th Avenue.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

Sam, barreling east, could potentially t bone another vehicle at high speed.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

I mean, mate, that wasn't what's safest for me. It's what is safest for other drivers. I was honestly more worried about hurting other people than myself. I would have thrown the vehicle off the side of the road before I would have let it hit anyone.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

Groover slowed down at the intersection with his lights flashing to stop the cross traffic on the highway.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

I felt like I had a pretty good distance on him and was like, okay, we can get here. Get this intersection blocked. And then he just kind of came out of nowhere.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

Kind of take a deep breath. Because of those cars on the side of the road, I don't have a lot of room.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

He was doing at least 112 miles an hour through that intersection.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

Very scary. Cause it's toast speed that if you make one mistake, things will go wrong.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

Yeah, that was kind of a oh crap moment. Just watching him go flying by.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

I remember had to swerve around a car at the stop sign and he

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

had to do a pretty good jerk around me just so he didn't rear end me, thankfully. So kind of had a bit of a win there.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

I felt relieved that I got past there, but I also didn't know what was ahead.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

Sam's pilot flew by Groover in a blur. But now the officer had to catch up and pass Sam again.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

He was a ways in front of me, but I, I don't think it took me too horribly long to get caught back up to him. Kind of a minute or so I was able to just put the pedal to the floor and go. My max speed was 141 miles an hour.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

Groover was still on the radio with the Clay county deputies. One who was on the phone with Sam and another who was also driving the next closest car in pursuit. As the officer spoke, they crossed from clay county into becker county and realized that they had about three or four miles before the paved road would end.

[Clay County Deputy]

701 to 724. Just so you're aware, once you get into Becker county, Becker County 14 tees off at 27 east of Hitterhall t intersection.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

The pavement came to a T. And then on the other side of the t was a gravel road. And once that gravel road ended, it turns into a dirt field. But it was slightly offset from the gravel.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

I kept glancing over the GPS map. That road ended. I knew this road's going to a T. What's going to happen?

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

Doing 113 on the gravel would have been scary enough and I don't think he would have been able to negotiate that little curve.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

It was a steep slope at the end I would just crash into.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

It was becoming a race against the clock and three to four miles wasn't a lot of ground to cover. Going speeds of more than 100 miles per hour.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

After watching him go through hit it all, it was we're going to have to be a ways ahead of him to be able to get out and get those stop sticks down.

[Clay County Deputy]

So if you can get to in front of it, slow it down. Do it now. Otherwise we're just gonna have to see what happens.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

I knew I wasn't gonna have time to, you know, stop my squad, get out of my squad, run to the trunk, get my stop sticks down and get them thrown out on the ground.

[Clay County Deputy]

Yeah, 10.4. I think we're not gonna be able to get six. He's going too fast.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

So it was kind of it shifted from putting stop sticks down to how else can we get this car stopped?

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

Eighteen year old Sam dutcher knew the road ahead of him was coming to an end and the cops would not be able to drop the spike strips to slow him down. And his car was still gaining speed.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

It was slowly accelerating. I think it topped off at 125. Not a nice speed to drive at. It was almost like a roller coaster. That's the closest I can compare it to controlling. It got difficult because I was starting to get tired. It was just that my brain was rushing, just pumping adrenaline. I started questioning, how much longer can I keep doing this?

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

Sam was deep into this nightmare. One slight jerk of the steering wheel, one little pothole on the road, and anything could happen.

[Clay County Deputy]

Some medics that way. Medics in relative standby.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

My thought was, there's no way I'm making it through this. I'm. I'm. I'm gonna die. I prayed, saying, please let me make this through this.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

He tried to stay focused on the road and not imagine the worst.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

I don't feel there was really room to think about what could happen. I just needed to focus on what is going on and staying in control. Because if I start focusing on other things, there's a good chance at that speed, you are losing troll and dying. I was just in a state of mind of, this is what's going on. I need to deal with this right now. Nothing else right now really matters.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

Back at home, his mother, Catherine, was trying to get updates from the 911 operator.

[911 Operator]

I'm the same mom that called about my kids just a little bit ago. Okay, here it is. The reckless driver. Right. Except his accelerator sucks. Oh, okay.

[Katherine Dutcher (Mother)]

It was scary knowing that I, like, couldn't be there. And so I called just to follow up and, like, do you guys know where the officers are at? Have they found him? Have they been able to do anything? What are they doing? So it was more of a sense of me wanting to know what happened.

[911 Operator]

They're on the phone with him now. We have officers from all over and medical all coming to him. Okay. Okay. My husband and I are driving out there too. Yes, I can. I can understand it's got to be extremely stressful. We have. But they are talking with him directly. Okay. So they're trying to help him get this taken care of in the safest way possible. And we've got officers and troopers and all sorts of people going towards him. Okay, okay, okay.

[Katherine Dutcher (Mother)]

And when they said that, I think that was the first time I really panicked and thought, like, oh, my God, I think my kid's gonna die. The whole idea that they had all these people going towards them made me feel like they were anticipating the worst and planning for it.

[911 Operator]

We've got people that are getting there as fast as they can. I know. All right. Okay. Okay. We're all keeping our fingers crossed for him.

[Clay County Deputy]

Okay.

[911 Operator]

Thank you. You're welcome.

[Katherine Dutcher (Mother)]

I felt pretty sick to my stomach. It felt like time was so slow. I had to just sit and wait and trust that they were doing everything that they could do.

[Clay County Deputy]

We are. 300 street just hitting Becker County, 90th Avenue North.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

Out on the road, it was time for a desperate last ditch effort to prevent a tragedy at 113 miles an hour.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

We had about 53 seconds before we hit the tee. We were not far. We were running out of time. We were running out of road and running out of options.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

The first option was to do a pursuit intervention technique. A pit where officers chasing vehicles will nudge the other car from behind to make it spin out. But Groover doubted it could be done on such a narrow road at speeds in excess of 113 miles per hour.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

We don't train at those speeds. So it was kind of just a. We don't really know what's going to happen. And obviously, you know, we don't want to try to do a pit on him and then have him go into the ditch sideways and roll a bunch of times. Because that's. I would. I would say that's just as dangerous as him going off the tee at 113 and seeing what happens.

[Clay County Deputy]

Do you have any other idea about getting us like before we hit that seat, getting out in front of it and drain that route?

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

We were kind of just radioing things. So it was kind of a, you know, we're all talking through each other.

[Clay County Deputy]

Copy state units. Go to LTAC1. So everybody's on the same channel.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

We were bouncing ideas off of each other just to kind of try to see what we could get done.

[Clay County Deputy]

704, what do you think? We'll just watch them.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

Then Groover had an idea.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

Just get in front of him and kind of match his speed. Let him kind of just make soft contact and just ride the brakes down till we got stopped.

[Clay County Deputy]

290, if that's your plan, you don't have much room left before teeth. So if you can do it, go for it.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

There was kind of a little bit of a thought of, obviously I'm driving a kind of a mid sized car and he's in a larger suv. So, you know, if he starts pushing me, we go sideways into the ditch. This probably isn't gonna end the best.

[Clay County Deputy]

290, I'm pulling up next. Yeah, I'll try to get in front of you and add a little Extra

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

brake, power groover doing about 130 miles per hour. Got ahead and passed Sam.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

I noticed him going in front of me. I didn't know what he was doing.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

I was in front of Sam. I started slowing down, and it hadn't been relayed to Sam yet to run into the back of me.

[Clay County Deputy]

37. He's still on the phone with him.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

I didn't know what was going on because they never told me. Hey, this is what we want you to do. In my mindset at the time, he just pulled in front of me. Oh, shoot. I don't want to hit him, so I'll go around him.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

Hey,

[Clay County Deputy]

Do you want him to go on the back of your car? If so, I'll have 37.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

He actually gets up next to me. And it was kind of at that moment where it's like a. Oh, you know, I. If he gets in front of me, I don't know if I'm going to get back in front of him.

[Clay County Deputy]

37 now going the back of this car. 290. You wanted me to get contact with you. And he was full.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

We were kind of neck and neck, both speeding up.

[Clay County Deputy]

Do we have them on the phone that's in the car? I got the driver on the phone here.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

The deputy on the phone with Sam told him what the plan was.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

He told me, so I want you to hit the car that's gonna pull up in front of you. You want me to what? I repeated that to him. So you want me to hit the cop car that's pulling in front of me? That's not something I really care to do. My thought was this could not end well.

[Clay County Deputy]

He's going to allow the person to hit him in the back.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

Once I got in front of him and started slowing down, something started to slow the car down as well.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

It was weird because collision, automatic braking started kicking on. I think it felt like we were probably slowed down to 80. The vehicle was making itself engine brake. Why did every other safety feature on this vehicle fail but that one worked?

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

It was kind of a. Okay, hey, this is. This is going really well. And we were slowing down, slowing down, slowing down. And he wasn't hitting me. And I was kind of thinking, hey, this might actually work. I think the forward collision isn't letting him hit me. We're slowing down.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

I was starting to think, hey, it's not gonna hit the vehicle. That's nice.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

I was watching him in my driver's side mirror, and I'm like, okay, he's, you know, he's coming up, but he's not hitting me.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

It was really close. I remember seeing the back of his car.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

We're slowing down, and I think I was down to about 20 miles an hour. And I lost his headlight in the driver's side mirror.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

It felt like time slowed down and then smack if.

[Clay County Deputy]

Hold him, hold him.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

When he hit me, I think that I was doing about 20 miles an hour. And once he hit me, I just dynamited the brakes.

[Clay County Deputy]

First stop.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

After he hit me, we came to a pretty immediate stop. My squad was enough to just keep his car from moving.

[Clay County Deputy]

Still.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

I was just sitting there frozen, kind of in shock when they came to my passenger side door, opened it up saying, get out of the car. The wheels were still spinning. When I got out, it was still running, trying to go, are we good?

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

I've never been rear ended before. I know my head smacked the headrest and it was a pretty good jolt that hit hard. That was like it was slowing down, slowing down. And then it wasn't.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

Yeah, I'm glad you guys were in the area.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

It's a good thing we had a charger. I don't know if. I mean, he was doing 113. When I caught up to him, he was, yeah, 114.

[911 Operator]

Did you say that the vehicle stopped?

[Clay County Deputy]

Going for a car stopped. Call medics. Can clear. We're. We're good.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

I got out of the car, then I went and sat in the grass and just. Just sat there and. And kind of zoned out for I don't know how long. My brain kind of just broke. I was kind of just in a sensory overload.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

He was cool, calm and collected. He was kind of just standing in the ditch.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

Groover will say it was calm. I wouldn't say it was calm. I'd say I shut down. But I'm part of that also. I am on the spectrum. So don't really show emotions as much. I mean, I was in the mindset of, I want to go home, I want to go to bed. I wanted my day to be over.

[Katherine Dutcher (Mother)]

He called me himself when they got the vehicle stopped and he got out and he's like, mom, I'm out of the car, I'm okay. And then I just wanted to see him, to know it was actually, like, real. I mean, it was amazing, but it also felt like it wasn't real. I was like, how could you, like, run into the back of a law enforcement occur at the speed that you're going to get stopped and not even be injured? Like, it didn't make any real sense till I actually saw him. I was thinking, God, like, you know, thank you, God, for not killing my kid. Thank you for coming. Keep him safe.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

It felt like a miracle. Very much so.

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

It was kind of a sigh of relief knowing that we were able to get it stopped and not have to watch him, you know, go off of a tee at 113 miles an hour. You don't really realize kind of what you did until after the fact. And it's kind of like, okay, this is pretty cool.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

So when you got home that night, did you tell your wife what happened?

[Minnesota State Trooper Zach Groover]

Absolutely not.

[Katherine Dutcher (Mother)]

The thing that I was even more floored about that I found out that next week during this whole thing, was that his wife was seriously pregnant at the time, ready to give birth to his very first son. And to think about that, he put his life on the line to save my son, knowing that he had his first one on the way, like, that was even more, like, amazing to me. I remember him walking up to me, sticking out his hand, like he was gonna shake my hand, and I'm like, seriously, could I hug you? I mean, you saved my kid's life. I don't really feel like a handshake is, like, doing justice.

[Narrator/Host (Glenn Washington)]

A huge thank you to Sam Dutcher and his mother, Katherine Johnson Dutcher, along with Minnesota State trooper Zach Groover, for sharing their story with the snap. Sam is currently a student at the North Dakota State College of Science, where he's studying to become an auto mechanic. Very Special thanks to Lt. Mike Lee of the Minnesota State Patrol as well. The original score for that piece was by Renzo Goriot, was edited by Anna Sussman. It was produced by Bo Walsh. After the break, blasting off to outer space. Stay tuned. Welcome back. Welcome to the vroom episode from snap's All Systems down series. My name is Glenn Washington. Next up, how do you solve a problem that is 12 billion miles away?

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

A lot of us think we're the center of the universe. Like Glenn Washington, for instance, thinks he's the center of the universe. But actually here I'm here in the center of the universe, where all the data comes in from all the spacecraft.

[Narrator/Host (Glenn Washington)]

Not too long ago, we decided to launch SNAP judge and producer John Fasile into outer space, at least as close to outer space as possible.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

I'm in a room above mission Control at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, looking down on, you know, like, what you imagine. Mission control in movies. I don't know why I'm whispering. I feel like I need to. To whisper while I'm up here.

[Narrator/Host (Glenn Washington)]

John went to NASA's West coast brain center, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, to talk to scientist Suzanne Dodd.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

What are your worst fears on this job? Like what keeps you up at night?

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

That's pretty easy actually. For Voyager, my worst fear is we send a bad command and it ends the life of a spacecraft. This is over here, just full scale model.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

Suzy Dodd is showing me a model of the Voyager spacecraft. It takes up half of one side of this auditorium, about the size of an rv. It's got a squat metal body with a white satellite dish on top and two metal arms hung with all kinds of electronic equipment.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

This is over here. These are all the pointing instruments, so cameras, ultraviolet spectrometers.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

And the golden record is really mounted on the side here like this.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

And the gold part is actually a cover.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

There are two Voyager spacecraft, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, and each of them has a golden record, like a vinyl record with recordings of greetings in different languages and a selection of music, everything from BOK to Chuck Berry. It's an audio postcard to any aliens who might encounter these spacecraft on their long journey across the cosmos.

[Narrator/Host (Glenn Washington)]

Jupiter and Saturn, these giant planets and

[Clay County Deputy]

the moon surrounding them will be looked at close up by two 1800 pound spacecraft loaded with cameras and scientific instruments. A mission that allows scientists to go back in time.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched in 1977 and sent out on their own to explore the outer planets of our solar system, places we'd never been able to send a probe before. And Suzy Dodd has been with them almost her whole career.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

You know, I like to describe them as twin sisters. At launch they were identical, but over the years different things have broken on them. And so one doesn't have very good hearing, the other one lost its sense of touch. They're my parents, grandparents. I think of them as senior citizens. Yeah, you want them to have a good full life. Good morning and welcome to the five o' clock edition. Avoid you'd update. I'm your host Suzanne Dodd. At 5am Pacific Daylight Time, Voyager is 510,000 kilometers or 317,000 miles above the swirling cloud tops of Neptune.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

Susie joined the Voyager program when she was just out of college. It was the late 80s and the Voyagers had accomplished nearly everything they'd set out to do. They visited and collected data from Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and their last stop, the last planet in our solar system was Neptune, almost 3 billion miles away. And Susie led the team of scientists sending commands via satellite to Voyager 2 as it flew by. The Icy blue planet and took pictures. You're in the first group of people to see any images of Neptune.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

Absolutely. That's what makes it the best. There was a giant blue spot, similar to Jupiter's giant red spot. This was a blue spot, a big

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

storm, a hurricane the size of Earth.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

One of my favorite pictures is actually when we were leaving Neptune and we turned around and looked at the planet, and it's the crescent of Neptune with the crescent of Triton. So you've got the blue Neptune crescent, and then you also have the brownish orange sort of crescent of its moon.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

After Neptune, the Voyager mission was technically over, and the scientists at JPL partied.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

I distinctly remember Chuck Berry on the steps right here at JPL playing Johnny B. Goode live. After the Neptune flyby,

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

The Voyagers were still going, heading deeper into space, sending back their data. NASA expected them to freeze or run out of power, but that didn't happen, which was kind of a miracle. And then, after two decades of essentially being on NASA's back burner, the Voyagers did something truly unprecedented in the 2000 and tens they both crossed out of the solar system, cruising past the edge of the protective magnetic bubble provided by our sun, and into interstellar space, that mostly empty space between our solar system and all the others in the Milky Way. By that time, Susie had returned to the Voyagers as project manager.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

Voyager is a trailblazer, right? It's going out, away from us. It's never coming back. We want to get to the farthest reaches that we can so we understand how our star interacts with all the stardust that's outside of it.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

The Voyagers measure the strength of the magnetic field, the energy of galactic rays, the density of plasma, which is this sea of electrified particles created by stars sloshing around in space. It records variations in the density of plasma onto a magnetic tape recorder. And when you play back the tape, it sounds like this. The Voyagers are sending back to Earth a near continuous stream of precious information about how space changes the further you get away from our sun. And Susie's job is to keep them going. So basically, the only commands you can send to these are like, on, off.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

Yes, exactly.

[Clay County Deputy]

Okay.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

And we've turned off because the nuclear generators that fuel the Voyagers are losing power bit by bit each year. Susie's team has had to turn off most of their instruments, like the cameras. They turned off their heaters.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

It's very cold where they are. They were never designed to work with their heaters off, but that has happened. We've been. You know, this is another miracle of Voyager. They're living on borrowed time to some degree. I wouldn't want to be the project manager or a team member that let a bad command slip through.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

So I believe it was July 21, 2023.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

2023. Yeah. I hear about it from our team. This is happening. It should be talking to us now, and it's not.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

On July 21, 2023, Susie's team sent a command to Voyager 2 telling it to turn its satellite dish 2 degrees towards Earth.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

We have to keep Voyager's antenna pointed at the Earth. Over time, it drifts slightly, it won't drift off point. We were sending a pretty simple type of command saying move it two steps back toward the center.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

But two days later, on July 23, the stream of data coming in from Voyager 2 went silent. Susie tried to stay calm as they ran through potential issues. Maybe the problem was coming from home base and was easy to fix.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

Maybe our ground data software is offline or something like that. So you have to rule out all the things on the ground. But once you do that, then there's only one thing that can be the problem, which is the spacecraft.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

The spacecraft Voyager 2. That was over 12 billion miles away.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

Once you know that it's the spacecraft that's not sending us data, then you need to start trying to determine why it's not sending.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

And when they retraced their steps, they found a problem in the last command they'd sent to Voyager two days earlier, telling it to turn its satellite dish 2 degrees towards Earth.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

Once you looked at that command string, we knew exactly what happened.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

Somebody had put the wrong number of degrees in the command.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

Instead of moving the antenna back toward the center, it sent it the other way. So it was even further off. Instead of bringing it back to the Earth, we pointed it more away from us.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

It was a typo. A typo had taken out contact with Voyager 2.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

It's bad. I mean, it's really bad. You've put so much time and energy in this.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

Even though they were still in Contact with Voyager 1, Susie knew this could be the end of the entire mission.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

There's a domino. You messed up.

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

Well.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

You need to change all your processes.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

If Susie and her team couldn't re establish contact with Voyager 2, they'd be subject to intense scrutiny.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

You know, having extra sets of eyes, developing new processes to do checks for you. Those all cost money. We'll just stop the Voyager mission.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

And then you would have to go out and talk to people like me. And say Voyager's over. That would be your responsibility.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

Yeah.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

Decades of mind blowing science, billions of dollars. Humanity's only connection to interstellar space. Over, finished. Because of a typo. Do you know who sent the command?

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

Yeah. I mean, there are a couple people that have the blame for the, for the air.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

Were you angry?

[Sam Dutcher (Son/Driver)]

Yeah.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

What's Susie angry look like?

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

You should ask my husband. When an anomaly happens like this, everybody is all in and trying to get it fixed. Right? It's not, not a blame immediately. The blame comes later.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

There was no time to waste. Every minute Voyager 2 hurtled over 500 miles further away from Earth. Susie and her team turned to the Deep Space Network, the dsn. A network of satellite dishes spread across the globe.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

The DSN can work miracles almost.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

The DSN scanned the skies for any sign of life. 10 days passed before they finally heard something.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

Something called carrier signals, which are radio waves. Without any information on those radio waves.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

The faintest heartbeat coming all the way from Voyager 2.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

It's giving us this frequency tone which was somewhat relieving because it means, okay, the spacecraft is still operating, but they

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

couldn't talk back now because of where Voyager 2 is flying relative to the Earth. There's only one satellite dish on Earth that can talk to it. It's in Australia, outside Canberra. The Canberra dish is humongous, right?

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

70 meters in diameter.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

This is like a couple of buildings.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

It fits inside the Rose Bowl.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

A Rose bowl sized satellite dish trying to talk to Voyager 2's dish, which is about the size of a hot tub. And all the way across the chasm of space. Susie and her team, sweating this out in a conference room at jpl, don't have a lot of options.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

So we said let's do the shout.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

What if they marshaled all of the Canberra Dish's energy? 100 kilowatts enough to power an office building and put it into one single powerful signal. A shout across space.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

I would call it more of a blast than a shout. You can think of James Bond movies where they're like giant lasers, you know, shooting down satellites or something like that. It's akin to a laser, but it's not optical, it's radio. I mean, you're just putting lots and lots of power to send a signal with as much energy as possible toward Voyager.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

Extra loud.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

Yes, extra loud, exactly.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

So Susie and her team load up the new command to reverse the typo and tell Voyager 2 to point its dish back towards Earth.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

You better believe we had like 10 people review the command, make sure it was correct this time.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

And then they send out this blast that goes roaring through space in search of Voyager 2. Because Voyager 2 is so far away they have to wait two days before they know anything. Now what are those two days like for you where you're waiting, you're planning

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

on what happens if it doesn't go correctly? Plan B options, basically.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

But it sounds like there really wasn't a Plan B.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

There wasn't an easy Plan B for sure. Do I get stressed? I do get stressed, yes.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

What do you do to deal with stress?

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

I go swimming.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

Susie is a lifelong swimmer. The pool is where she goes to empty her mind. Or try to anyway.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

There's some aspect of going back and repeating through your mind decisions that were made. And did you make the correct decision for the information you had?

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

I'm imagining you swimming, you know, and just asking yourself these questions over and over. Is that something that you do?

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

I do that sometimes. I try not to run into the wall.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

Two weeks had gone by since they first lost contact with Voyager 2. But then at 12:29am on August 4, a familiar voice reached the DSN satellite ears with news about plasma, galactic rays and the magnetic fields in interstellar space. It was Voyager 2. The shout had worked. How did that feel?

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

Very relieving. Very relieving. I was still mad. I was still mad we had done it. But I was relieved that we were able to recover the spacecraft.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

Against all expectations, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are still out there. Over 13 billion miles away and they're still talking to us. They're the most distant man made objects and the oldest spacecraft still in operation.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

Voyager will be gone in five, six years. We'll either run out of power or we'll freeze. That's going to be the end of it.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

How are you going to feel when it's over?

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

I think it's going to be a mixture of sad but proud. This mission will be more than a half century old and it definitely bookends my career because I started on Voyager. My career will definitely end on Voyager. So I have a life outside of work. But it'll be an adjustment.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist)]

You'll kind of both be kind of drifting off into space a little bit.

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

I'm not expecting any aliens to contact me after I retire though they'll probably contact Voyager first. By the time I got your letter

[Narrator/Host (Glenn Washington)]

I lost my mind.

[Katherine Dutcher (Mother)]

I was trippin. When you're getting better It's a jagged

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

line

[Katherine Dutcher (Mother)]

Nothing lasts forever when you travel

[Susie Dodd (NASA Scientist, Interviewee)]

time I've been sipping that Kool Aid

[Narrator/Host (Glenn Washington)]

at the Cosmos

[Katherine Dutcher (Mother)]

cuz the Voyagers in Every boy and girl

[Narrator/Host (Glenn Washington)]

in 2000, 2027, the Voyager mission will celebrate its 50th anniversary. Thank you Susie Dodd for sharing that story with us. And special thanks to Jenny Lewis. The song you're hearing, the Voyager, is from her album of the same name. Special thanks as well to the team at JPL and Keith Khalrami. The original score for this piece was by Doug Stewart. The story is produced by John Facil. That was just the start of snap's All Systems down series. There is more on the way and so you don't miss a moment, make sure that the Snap Judgment podcast is on your phone device and SNAP is now available. Subscribe for bonus Snap episodes every month and a special ad free stream SNAP meetups and more [e-mail] KQED in San Francisco is SNAP's orbiting hall of Justice on Team SNAP. The union representative, producers, artists, editors and engineers are members of the national association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, Communications Workers of America and AFL CIO Local 51. Stop is brought to you by the team that comes to a full stop at each and every stop sign, except for the uber producer, Mr. Mark Ristich, who believes that traffic signs are traffic suggestions. And there's Nancy Lopez, Pat Mercede Miller, Anna Sussman, Renzo Goriel, John Facil, Sheyna Shealy, Kayl Ducat, Flo Wylie, Bo Walsh, Marisa Dodge. And this is not the news. No way. It's just the news. In fact, your car could develop a mind of its own and insist on driving you and a cold six pack to the beach every Friday when you're supposed to be at work. Bad car. And you would still not be as far away from the news as this is. But this is prx. All new drinks are now at McDonald's with refreshers like the Strawberry Watermelon Refresher and the Mango Pineapple Refresher with Popping Boba to crafted sodas like the Sprite Berry Blast with berry flavors and cold foam.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

Who knew ice cold drinks could be so fire six?

[Narrator/Host (Glenn Washington)]

All new drinks are here now at McDonald's.

[Producer/Reporter (Bo Walsh)]

Refreshers contain caffeine.