The launch was in 1977, the construction of the probes started in 1975. So it's between 41 to 43 years ago. If you were a young engineer at the time, let say 2

The launch was in 1977, the construction of the probes started in 1975. So it's between 41 to 43 years ago. If you were a young engineer at the time, let say 22, you are now 65 years old, if you were 30, you are now 73. So there is a good chance that people who worked on the design and creation of these probes are now retired, except maybe for the youngers (25 and less or the time). It's absolutly not a statement against young versus old. By 68 years old, I hope to be retired ^^. And it doesn't take into account that the computer system is derived from the Vikings probes, so it's even a bit older than that. As for the assembly language, I don't think they are stating that assembly is outdated by itself. I think that they are more stating that the assembly language used for these probes, custom and purpose made for these probes, coming fom the 70ies, is now outdated. And assembly can still be a very legitimate choice, specially in highly constrained domains and high safety assurance requirements (even trusting a compiler is a risk).