The little spacecraft that could, Voyager 1, is still sending back data after nearly thirty years. Recently, it passed through the termination shock, the edge of the border region between the solar system and interstellar space.

Equipment bookings fell off a table in January, probably thanks to uninspiring Christmas and year-end results, and have been essentially flat ever since. Nor is the outlook any brighter for the rest of the year.

As upturns go, this one was relatively weak. Even at the peak, bookings never approached the boom levels of 1999 and 2000, and even fell short of the previous cycle's 1997 peak. Maturing industry, anyone?