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Voyager, nasa’s longest-lived mission, logs 45 years in space, jet propulsion laboratory, beyond expectations, the long journey, more about the mission.

Launched in 1977, the twin Voyager probes are NASA’s longest-operating mission and the only spacecraft ever to explore interstellar space.

NASA’s twin Voyager probes have become, in some ways, time capsules of their era: They each carry an eight-track tape player for recording data, they have about 3 million times less memory than modern cellphones, and they transmit data about 38,000 times slower than a 5G internet connection.

Yet the Voyagers remain on the cutting edge of space exploration. Managed and operated by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, they are the only probes to ever explore interstellar space – the galactic ocean that our Sun and its planets travel through.

The Sun and the planets reside in the heliosphere, a protective bubble created by the Sun’s magnetic field and the outward flow of solar wind (charged particles from the Sun). Researchers – some of them younger than the two distant spacecraft – are combining Voyager’s observations with data from newer missions to get a more complete picture of our Sun and how the heliosphere interacts with interstellar space.

“The heliophysics mission fleet provides invaluable insights into our Sun, from understanding the corona or the outermost part of the Sun’s atmosphere, to examining the Sun’s impacts throughout the solar system, including here on Earth, in our atmosphere, and on into interstellar space,” said Nicola Fox, director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Over the last 45 years, the Voyager missions have been integral in providing this knowledge and have helped change our understanding of the Sun and its influence in ways no other spacecraft can.”

NASA’s Solar System Interactive lets users see where the Voyagers are right now relative to the planets, the Sun, and other spacecraft. Eyes on the Solar System . Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The Voyagers are also ambassadors, each carrying a golden record containing images of life on Earth, diagrams of basic scientific principles, and audio that includes sounds from nature, greetings in multiple languages, and music. The gold-coated records serve as a cosmic “message in a bottle” for anyone who might encounter the space probes. At the rate gold decays in space and is eroded by cosmic radiation, the records will last more than a billion years. 

Voyager 2 launched on Aug. 20, 1977, quickly followed by Voyager 1 on Sept. 5. Both probes traveled to Jupiter and Saturn, with Voyager 1 moving faster and reaching them first. Together, the probes unveiled much about the solar system’s two largest planets and their moons. Voyager 2 also became the first and only spacecraft to fly close to Uranus (in 1986) and Neptune (in 1989), offering humanity remarkable views of – and insights into – these distant worlds.

While Voyager 2 was conducting these flybys, Voyager 1 headed toward the boundary of the heliosphere. Upon exiting it in 2012 , Voyager 1 discovered that the heliosphere blocks 70% of cosmic rays, or energetic particles created by exploding stars. Voyager 2, after completing its planetary explorations, continued to the heliosphere boundary, exiting in 2018 . The twin spacecraft’s combined data from this region has challenged previous theories about the exact shape of the heliosphere.

“Today, as both Voyagers explore interstellar space, they are providing humanity with observations of uncharted territory,” said Linda Spilker, Voyager’s deputy project scientist at JPL. “This is the first time we’ve been able to directly study how a star, our Sun, interacts with the particles and magnetic fields outside our heliosphere, helping scientists understand the local neighborhood between the stars, upending some of the theories about this region, and providing key information for future missions.”

Over the years, the Voyager team has grown accustomed to surmounting challenges that come with operating such mature spacecraft, sometimes calling upon retired colleagues for their expertise or digging through documents written decades ago.

Each Voyager is powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator containing plutonium, which gives off heat that is converted to electricity. As the plutonium decays, the heat output decreases and the Voyagers lose electricity. To compensate , the team turned off all nonessential systems and some once considered essential, including heaters that protect the still-operating instruments from the frigid temperatures of space. All five of the instruments that have had their heaters turned off since 2019 are still working, despite being well below the lowest temperatures they were ever tested at.

Recently, Voyager 1 began experiencing an issue that caused status information about one of its onboard systems to become garbled. Despite this, the system and spacecraft otherwise continue to operate normally, suggesting the problem is with the production of the status data, not the system itself. The probe is still sending back science observations while the engineering team tries to fix the problem or find a way to work around it.

“The Voyagers have continued to make amazing discoveries, inspiring a new generation of scientists and engineers,” said Suzanne Dodd, project manager for Voyager at JPL. “We don’t know how long the mission will continue, but we can be sure that the spacecraft will provide even more scientific surprises as they travel farther away from the Earth.”

A division of Caltech in Pasadena, JPL built and operates the Voyager spacecraft. The Voyager missions are a part of the NASA Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more information about the Voyager spacecraft, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/voyager

Calla Cofield Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 626-808-2469 [email protected]

Voyager, NASA’s Longest-Lived Mission, Logs 45 Years in Space

This archival image taken at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on March 23, 1977, shows engineers preparing the Voyager 2 spacecraft ahead of its launch later that year.

Launched in 1977, the twin Voyager probes are NASA’s longest-operating mission and the only spacecraft ever to explore interstellar space.

NASA’s twin Voyager probes have become, in some ways, time capsules of their era: They each carry an eight-track tape player for recording data, they have about 3 million times less memory than modern cellphones, and they transmit data about 38,000 times slower than a 5G internet connection.

Yet the Voyagers remain on the cutting edge of space exploration. Managed and operated by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, they are the only probes to ever explore interstellar space – the galactic ocean that our Sun and its planets travel through.

The Sun and the planets reside in the heliosphere, a protective bubble created by the Sun’s magnetic field and the outward flow of solar wind (charged particles from the Sun). Researchers – some of them younger than the two distant spacecraft – are combining Voyager’s observations with data from newer missions to get a more complete picture of our Sun and how the heliosphere interacts with interstellar space.

NASA’s Solar System Interactive lets users see where the Voyagers are right now relative to the planets, the Sun, and other spacecraft. View it yourself here . Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

“The heliophysics mission fleet provides invaluable insights into our Sun, from understanding the corona or the outermost part of the Sun’s atmosphere, to examining the Sun’s impacts throughout the solar system, including here on Earth, in our atmosphere, and on into interstellar space,” said Nicola Fox, director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Over the last 45 years, the Voyager missions have been integral in providing this knowledge and have helped change our understanding of the Sun and its influence in ways no other spacecraft can.”

The Voyagers are also ambassadors, each carrying a golden record containing images of life on Earth, diagrams of basic scientific principles, and audio that includes sounds from nature, greetings in multiple languages, and music. The gold-coated records serve as a cosmic “message in a bottle” for anyone who might encounter the space probes. At the rate gold decays in space and is eroded by cosmic radiation, the records will last more than a billion years.

45 Years of Voyager I and II

Launched in 1977, NASA’s twin Voyager spacecraft inspired the world with pioneering visits to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Their journey continues 45 years later as both probes explore interstellar space, the region outside the protective heliosphere created by our Sun. Researchers – some younger than the spacecraft – are now using Voyager data to solve mysteries of our solar system and beyond.

This archival photo shows engineers working on vibration acoustics and pyro shock testing of NASA’s Voyager on Nov. 18, 1976. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Voyager 1 acquired this image of a volcanic explosion on Io on March 4, 1979, about 11 hours before the spacecraft’s closest approach to the moon of Jupiter.

Neptune’s green-blue atmosphere was shown in greater detail than ever before in this image from NASA’s Voyager 2 as the spacecraft rapidly approached its encounter with the giant planet in August 1989.

This updated version of the iconic "Pale Blue Dot" image taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft uses modern image-processing software and techniques to revisit the well-known Voyager view while attempting to respect the original data and intent of those who planned the images.

This illustrated graphic was made to mark Voyager 1’s entry into interstellar space in 2012. It puts solar system distances in perspective, with the scale bar in astronomical units and each set distance beyond 1 AU (the average distance between the Sun and Earth) representing 10 times the previous distance.

This graphic highlights some of the Voyager mission’s key accomplishments. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Full image details

This graphic provides some of the mission’s key statistics from 2018, when NASA’s Voyager 2 probe exited the heliosphere. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Full image details

Beyond Expectations

Voyager 2 launched on Aug. 20, 1977, quickly followed by Voyager 1 on Sept. 5. Both probes traveled to Jupiter and Saturn, with Voyager 1 moving faster and reaching them first. Together, the probes unveiled much about the solar system’s two largest planets and their moons. Voyager 2 also became the first and only spacecraft to fly close to Uranus (in 1986) and Neptune (in 1989), offering humanity remarkable views of – and insights into – these distant worlds.

While Voyager 2 was conducting these flybys, Voyager 1 headed toward the boundary of the heliosphere. Upon exiting it in 2012 , Voyager 1 discovered that the heliosphere blocks 70% of cosmic rays, or energetic particles created by exploding stars. Voyager 2, after completing its planetary explorations, continued to the heliosphere boundary, exiting in 2018 . The twin spacecraft’s combined data from this region has challenged previous theories about the exact shape of the heliosphere.

Voyager 1 and 2 have accomplished a lot since they launched in 1977. This infographic highlights the mission’s major milestones, including visiting the four outer planets and exiting the heliosphere, or the protective bubble of magnetic fields and particles created by the Sun.

“Today, as both Voyagers explore interstellar space, they are providing humanity with observations of uncharted territory,” said Linda Spilker, Voyager’s deputy project scientist at JPL. “This is the first time we’ve been able to directly study how a star, our Sun, interacts with the particles and magnetic fields outside our heliosphere, helping scientists understand the local neighborhood between the stars, upending some of the theories about this region, and providing key information for future missions.”

The Long Journey

Over the years, the Voyager team has grown accustomed to surmounting challenges that come with operating such mature spacecraft, sometimes calling upon retired colleagues for their expertise or digging through documents written decades ago.

Each Voyager is powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator containing plutonium, which gives off heat that is converted to electricity. As the plutonium decays, the heat output decreases and the Voyagers lose electricity. To compensate , the team turned off all nonessential systems and some once considered essential, including heaters that protect the still-operating instruments from the frigid temperatures of space. All five of the instruments that have had their heaters turned off since 2019 are still working, despite being well below the lowest temperatures they were ever tested at.

Get the Latest JPL News

Recently, Voyager 1 began experiencing an issue that caused status information about one of its onboard systems to become garbled. Despite this, the system and spacecraft otherwise continue to operate normally, suggesting the problem is with the production of the status data, not the system itself. The probe is still sending back science observations while the engineering team tries to fix the problem or find a way to work around it.

“The Voyagers have continued to make amazing discoveries, inspiring a new generation of scientists and engineers,” said Suzanne Dodd, project manager for Voyager at JPL. “We don’t know how long the mission will continue, but we can be sure that the spacecraft will provide even more scientific surprises as they travel farther away from the Earth.”

More About the Mission

A division of Caltech in Pasadena, JPL built and operates the Voyager spacecraft. The Voyager missions are a part of the NASA Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more information about the Voyager spacecraft, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/voyager

News Media Contact

Calla Cofield

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

626-808-2469

[email protected]

Voyager 1: Facts about Earth's farthest spacecraft

Voyager 1 continues to explore the cosmos along with its twin probe, Voyager 2.

The Grand Tour

Voyager 1 jupiter flyby, voyager 1 visits saturn and its moons, voyager 1 enters interstellar space, voyager 1's interstellar adventures, additional resources.

Voyager 1 is the first spacecraft to travel beyond the solar system and reach interstellar space . 

The probe launched on Sept. 5, 1977 — about two weeks after its twin Voyager 2 — and as of August 2022 is approximately 14.6 billion miles (23.5 billion kilometers) away from our planet, making it Earth 's farthest spacecraft. Voyager 1 is currently zipping through space at around 38,000 mph (17 kilometers per second), according to NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory .

When Voyager 1 launched a mission to explore the outer planets in our solar system nobody knew how important the probe would still be 45 years later The probe has remained operational long past expectations and continues to send information about its journeys back to Earth. 

Related: Celebrate 45 years of Voyager with these amazing images of our solar system (gallery)

Elizabeth Howell, Ph.D., is a staff writer in the spaceflight channel since 2022. She was contributing writer for  Space.com  for 10 years before that, since 2012. Elizabeth's on-site reporting includes two human spaceflight launches from Kazakhstan, three space shuttle missions in Florida, and embedded reporting from a simulated Mars mission in Utah. 

Size: Voyager 1's body is about the size of a subcompact car. The boom for its magnetometer instrument extends 42.7 feet (13 meters). Weight (at launch): 1,797 pounds (815 kilograms). Launch date: Sept. 5, 1977

Jupiter flyby date: March 5, 1979

Saturn flyby date: Nov. 12, 1980.

Entered interstellar space: Aug. 25, 2012. 

The spacecraft entered interstellar space in August 2012, almost 35 years after its voyage began. The discovery wasn't made official until 2013, however, when scientists had time to review the data sent back from Voyager 1.

Voyager 1 was the second of the twin spacecraft to launch, but it was the first to race by Jupiter and Saturn . The images Voyager 1 sent back have been used in schoolbooks and by many media outlets for a generation. The spacecraft also carries a special record — The Golden Record — that's designed to carry voices and music from Earth out into the cosmos. 

According to NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) , Voyager 1 has enough fuel to keep its instruments running until at least 2025. By then, the spacecraft will be approximately 13.8 billion miles (22.1 billion kilometers) away from the sun.  

The Voyager missions took advantage of a special alignment of the outer planets that happens just once every 176 years. This alignment allows spacecraft to gravitationally "slingshot" from one planet to the next, making the most efficient use of their limited fuel.

NASA originally planned to send two spacecraft past Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto and two other probes past Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune . Budgetary reasons forced the agency to scale back its plans, but NASA still got a lot out of the two Voyagers it launched.

Voyager 2 flew past Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune , while Voyager 1 focused on Jupiter and Saturn.

Recognizing that the Voyagers would eventually fly to interstellar space, NASA authorized the production of two Golden Records to be placed on board the spacecraft. Sounds ranging from whale calls to the music of Chuck Berry were placed on board, as well as spoken greetings in 55 languages. 

The 12-inch-wide (30 centimeters), gold-plated copper disks also included pictorials showing how to operate them and the position of the sun among nearby pulsars (a type of fast-spinning stellar corpse known as a neutron star ), in case extraterrestrials someday stumbled onto the spacecraft and wondered where they came from.

Both spacecraft are powered by three radioisotope thermoelectric generators , devices that convert the heat released by the radioactive decay of plutonium to electricity. Both probes were outfitted with 10 scientific instruments, including a two-camera imaging system, multiple spectrometers, a magnetometer and gear that detects low-energy charged particles and high-energy cosmic rays . Mission team members have also used the Voyagers' communications system to help them study planets and moons, bringing the total number of scientific investigations on each craft to 11.

Voyager 1 almost didn't get off the ground at its launch , as its rocket came within 3.5 seconds of running out of fuel on Sept. 5, 1977.

But the probe made it safely to space and raced past its twin after launch, getting beyond the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter before Voyager 2 did. Voyager 1's first pictures of Jupiter beamed back to Earth in April 1978, when the probe was 165 million miles (266 million kilometers) from home.

According to NASA , each voyager probe has about 3 million times less memory than a mobile phone and transmits data approximately 38,000 times slower than a 5g internet connection.  

To NASA's surprise, in March 1979 Voyager 1 spotted a thin ring circling the giant planet. It found two new moons as well — Thebe and Metis. Additionally, Voyager 1 sent back detailed pictures of Jupiter's big Galilean moons ( Io , Europa , Ganymede and Callisto ) as well as Amalthea .

Like the Pioneer spacecraft before it , Voyager's look at Jupiter's moons revealed them to be active worlds of their own. And Voyager 1 made some intriguing discoveries about these natural satellites. For example, Io's many volcanoes and mottled yellow-brown-orange surface showed that, like planets, moons can have active interiors.

Additionally, Voyager 1 sent back photos of Europa showing a relatively smooth surface broken up by lines, hinting at ice and maybe even an ocean underneath. (Subsequent observations and analyses have revealed that Europa likely harbors a huge subsurface ocean of liquid water, which may even be able to support Earth-like life .)

Voyager 1's closest approach to Jupiter was on March 5, 1979, when it came within 174,000 miles (280,000 km) of the turbulent cloud tops. Then it was time for the probe to aim for Saturn.

Scientists only had to wait about a year, until 1980, to get close-up pictures of Saturn. Like Jupiter, the ringed planet turned out to be full of surprises.

One of Voyager 1's targets was the F ring, a thin structure discovered only the year previously by NASA's Pioneer 11 probe. Voyager's higher-resolution camera spotted two new moons, Prometheus and Pandora, whose orbits keep the icy material in the F ring in a defined orbit. It also discovered Atlas and a new ring, the G ring, and took images of several other Saturn moons.

One puzzle for astronomers was Titan , the second-largest moon in the solar system (after Jupiter's Ganymede). Close-up pictures of Titan showed nothing but orange haze, leading to years of speculation about what it was like underneath. It wouldn't be until the mid-2000s that humanity would find out, thanks to photos snapped from beneath the haze by the European Space Agency's Huygens atmospheric probe .

The Saturn encounter marked the end of Voyager 1's primary mission. The focus then shifted to tracking the 1,590-pound (720 kg) craft as it sped toward interstellar space.

Two decades before it notched that milestone, however, Voyager 1 took one of the most iconic photos in spaceflight history. On Feb. 14, 1990, the probe turned back toward Earth and snapped an image of its home planet from 3.7 billion miles (6 billion km) away. The photo shows Earth as a tiny dot suspended in a ray of sunlight. 

Voyager 1 took dozens of other photos that day, capturing five other planets and the sun in a multi-image "solar system family portrait." But the Pale Blue Dot picture stands out, reminding us that Earth is a small outpost of life in an incomprehensibly vast universe.

Voyager 1 left the heliosphere — the giant bubble of charged particles that the sun blows around itself — in August 2012, popping free into interstellar space. The discovery was made public in a study published in the journal Science the following year.

The results came to light after a powerful solar eruption was recorded by Voyager 1's plasma wave instrument between April 9 and May 22, 2013. The eruption caused electrons near Voyager 1 to vibrate. From the oscillations, researchers discovered that Voyager 1's surroundings had a higher density than what is found just inside the heliosphere.

It seems contradictory that electron density is higher in interstellar space than it is in the sun's neighborhood. But researchers explained that, at the edge of the heliosphere, the electron density is dramatically low compared with locations near Earth. 

Researchers then backtracked through Voyager 1's data and nailed down the official departure date to Aug. 25, 2012. The date was fixed not only by the electron oscillations but also by the spacecraft's measurements of charged solar particles. 

On that fateful day — which was the same day that Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong died — the probe saw a 1,000-fold drop in these particles and a 9% increase in galactic cosmic rays that come from outside the solar system . At that point, Voyager 1 was 11.25 billion miles (18.11 billion km) from the sun, or about 121 astronomical units (AU).

One AU is the average Earth-sun distance — about 93 million miles (150 million km).

You can keep tabs on the Voyager 1's current distance and mission status on this NASA website .

Since flying into interstellar space, Voyager 1 has sent back a variety of valuable information about conditions in this zone of the universe . Its discoveries include showing that cosmic radiation out there is very intense, and demonstrating how charged particles from the sun interact with those emitted by other stars , mission project scientist Ed Stone, of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, told Space.com in September 2017 .

The spacecraft's capabilities continue to astound engineers. In December 2017, for example, NASA announced that Voyager 1 successfully used its backup thrusters to orient itself to "talk" with Earth . The trajectory correction maneuver (TCM) thrusters hadn't been used since November 1980, during Voyager 1's flyby of Saturn. Since then, the spacecraft had primarily used its standard attitude-control thrusters to swing the spacecraft in the right orientation to communicate with Earth. 

As the performance of the attitude-control thrusters began to deteriorate, however, NASA decided to test the TCM thrusters — an idea that could extend Voyager 1's operational life. That test ultimately succeeded. 

"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," Voyager project manager Suzanne Dodd, of NASA's Jet Propulsion, Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, said in a statement in December 2017 .

Mission team members have taken other measures to extend Voyager 1's life as well. For example, they turned off the spacecraft's cameras shortly after the Pale Blue Dot photo was taken to help conserve Voyager 1's limited power supply. (The cameras wouldn't pick up much in the darkness of deep space anyway.) Over the years, the mission team has turned off five other scientific instruments as well, leaving Voyager 1 with four that are still functioning — the Cosmic Ray Subsystem, the Low-Energy Charged Particles instrument, the Magnetometer and the Plasma Wave Subsystem. (Similar measures have been taken with Voyager 2, which currently has five operational instruments .)

The Voyager spacecraft each celebrated 45 years in space in 2022, a monumental milestone for the twin probes.

"Over the last 45 years, the Voyager missions have been integral in providing this knowledge and have helped change our understanding of the sun and its influence in ways no other spacecraft can," says Nicola Fox, director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, in a NASA statement .

"Today, as both Voyagers explore interstellar space, they are providing humanity with observations of uncharted territory," said Linda Spilker, Voyager's deputy project scientist at JPL in the same NASA statement.

"This is the first time we've been able to directly study how a star, our Sun, interacts with the particles and magnetic fields outside our heliosphere, helping scientists understand the local neighborhood between the stars, upending some of the theories about this region, and providing key information for future missions." Spilker continues.

Voyager 1's next big encounter will take place in 40,000 years when the probe comes within 1.7 light-years of the star AC +79 3888. (The star is roughly 17.5 light-years from Earth.) However, Voyager 1's falling power supply means it will probably stop collecting scientific data around 2025.

You can learn much more about both Voyagers' design, scientific instruments and mission goals at JPL's Voyager site . NASA has lots of in-depth information about the Pale Blue Dot photo, including Carl Sagan's large role in making it happen, here . And if you're interested in the Golden Record, check out this detailed New Yorker piece by Timothy Ferris, who produced the historic artifact.  Explore the history of Voyager with this interactive timeline courtesy of NASA.  

Bibliography

• Bell, Jim. " The Interstellar Age: Inside the Forty-Year Voyager Mission ," Dutton, 2015.
• Landau, Elizabeth. "The Voyagers in popular culture," Dec. 1, 2017. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/the-voyagers-in-popular-culture
• PBS, "Voyager: A history in photos." https://www.pbs.org/the-farthest/mission/voyager-history-photos/

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Elizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., is a staff writer in the spaceflight channel since 2022 covering diversity, education and gaming as well. She was contributing writer for Space.com for 10 years before joining full-time. Elizabeth's reporting includes multiple exclusives with the White House and Office of the Vice-President of the United States, an exclusive conversation with aspiring space tourist (and NSYNC bassist) Lance Bass, speaking several times with the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, flying parabolic, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission. Her latest book, " Why Am I Taller ?", is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams. Elizabeth holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota, a Bachelor of Journalism from Canada's Carleton University and a Bachelor of History from Canada's Athabasca University. Elizabeth is also a post-secondary instructor in communications and science at several institutions since 2015; her experience includes developing and teaching an astronomy course at Canada's Algonquin College (with Indigenous content as well) to more than 1,000 students since 2020. Elizabeth first got interested in space after watching the movie Apollo 13 in 1996, and still wants to be an astronaut someday. Mastodon: https://qoto.org/@howellspace

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Interstellar Messengers

Voyager 1 and its twin Voyager 2 are the only spacecraft ever to operate outside the heliosphere, the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields generated by the Sun. Voyager 1 reached the interstellar boundary in 2012, while Voyager 2 (traveling slower and in a different direction than its twin) reached it in 2018.

Mission Type

Science Targets

Latest News

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NASA’s Voyager Will Do More Science With New Power Strategy

Edward Stone Retires After 50 Years as NASA Voyager’s Project Scientist

Engineers Solve Data Glitch on NASA’s Voyager 1

Voyager, NASA’s Longest-Lived Mission, Logs 45 Years in Space

The Interstellar Mission

After completing the first in-depth reconnaissance of the outer planets, the twin Voyagers are on a new mission to chart the edge of interstellar space.

The Golden Record

The contents of the golden record were selected for NASA by a committee led by Carl Sagan of Cornell University.

The Spacecraft

The twin Voyagers are escaping our solar system in different directions at more than 3 astronomical units (AU) a year.

The Pale Blue Dot

The behind-the-scenes story of the making of Voyager 1's iconic image of Earth as "a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."

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10 Interesting Facts about the Voyager 1 Probe

October 29, 2017 James Miller Solar System , Space Missions 0

According to some reports, many of the mission scientists working on the Voyager space exploration program are “amazed” that both Voyagers are still functioning after forty years in service. This sentiment becomes clear when one considers that the Voyagers run on technology that was developed in the 1970’s, which incidentally, has not suffered any major breakdowns and malfunctions in four decades.

The fact that Voyager 1 had made it to outer space is a testament to the skill, knowledge, and dedication of the engineers who designed, built, and still operate the craft. Furthermore, Voyager 1 has made major contributions to our knowledge of the outer planets over the years, and is expected to continue collecting and returning data to Earth until about 2025. Below are ten interesting facts about this amazing craft.

Voyager 1 is the furthest space craft from Earth

The image below shows Voyager 1 being propelled into space by a Titan IIIE lift vehicle. Launched on September 5, 1977, sixteen days after Voyager 2 which lifted off on August 20, Voyager 1 is now the furthest manufactured object from Earth, even further than the dwarf planets Eris and V774104, which are 96 AU and about 103 AU away, respectively. From a distance of 140 AU away (as on September 22, 2017), Voyager 1 is still in regular contact with the Deep Space Network, and receiving control inputs and return data. In practice, this means that Voyager 1 is the most distant object in the solar system whose exact location is known at all times.

Voyager 1 was originally part of the Mariner 11 program

When NASA first conceived of a “Grand Tour” of the solar system in the 1960’s, the proposed craft that would conduct the tour was designed to be a part of the Mariner 11 program. However, based on the lessons on solar radiation learned from the Mariner 10 program, (as well as severe budget cuts), the craft was designed to be able to cope more effectively with the strong radiation fields around Jupiter, which it was meant to visit. Eventually, the design and specifications of the proposed craft started to deviate from the Mariner designs so radically that the proposed craft was renamed as Voyager 1.

Voyager 1 has three nuclear reactors that generate power

Voyager 1 is the third craft to reach solar system-escape velocity

After completing its planetary mission in November of 1980, Voyager 1 became one of only a handful of spacecraft to obtain enough velocity (about 17 km/sec) to escape from the solar system, the other craft being Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, and Voyager 2. Apart from the New Horizons craft, Voyager 1 also had the fastest launch speed; it overtook Voyager 2 a few months after launch, flew past Pioneer 11 in the late 1980’s, and passed Pioneer 10 on February 17, 1998. Incidentally, New Horizons will, despite its high velocity, never overtake either of the two Voyagers.

Voyager 1 discovered the source of Saturn’s excess heat

Voyager 1 detected during the Saturn fly-by that the planet’s upper atmosphere contains only about 7% helium, which was surprising considering its helium abundance was expected to be about 11%, or the value for both the Sun and Jupiter . Investigators are surmising that the heavier helium is sinking downward through the less-dense hydrogen in the planets’ atmosphere creating heat, which might explain why Saturn radiates more heat than it receives from the Sun. Voyager 1 also discovered winds that blow at more than 500 m/sec (1,100 mph) through Saturn’s atmosphere in an easterly direction.

Voyager 1 also discovered volcanoes in the Jovian system

Since it was long thought that Earth is the only body in the solar system on which active volcanoes are present, this image taken by Voyager 1 of an erupting volcano on Jupiter’s moon Io came as a major surprise. Voyager also discovered that material ejected from volcanoes on Io permeates the entire Jovian system, since sulphur, oxygen, and sodium was detected by Voyager 1 right at the outer limits of Jupiter’s magnetosphere, which is the region of space around the system that is affected and influenced by Jupiter’s magnetic field.

Voyager 1 took the first solar system “family portrait”

The assembled mosaic above represents the first ever image of the solar system taken from outside of the solar system. This image was taken by Voyager 1 on February 14, 1990, shortly before the crafts’ imaging equipment was purposely disabled by deleting the software that control the cameras. This was done to conserve both power and computer resources, but also because Earth-based technology to receive and “read” images from the craft are no longer available.

The modified image below shows one small part of the above mosaic. This image is known as the Pale Blue Dot, and it shows Earth as the bright spot at the centre of the blue circle, with Voyager 1 having taken the photo on February 14, 1990 from a distance of 4 billion miles (6.4 billion km). The brown line in which Earth appears is one band of sunlight that is reflecting off a part of the spacecraft.

Voyager 1 is now officially in outer space

While the question of when Voyager 1 had left the solar system , or even if it had left at all, was the subject of heated debate among scientists for several years, most investigators now accept August 25, 2012 as the date on which the craft officially exited the solar system. This was decided based upon the increase of the average density of electrons in the craft’s vicinity, which in turn is based on a solar outburst that had occurred March of 2012, and the frequency of plasma oscillations caused by the outburst. The final conclusion was that since the electron density outside of the Sun’s heliosheath is expected be twice that of the electron density inside it, Voyager must be in the interstellar medium.

Despite the above, Voyager 1 is still in the solar system proper

While many people consider leaving the heliosheath as being synonymous with leaving the solar system,, the fact is that the two are vastly different. The Sun’s heliosheath merely refers to the region of space that is influenced by the Sun’s gravity and radiation, while the term “solar system” refers to the region of space that is inhabited by all the bodies that orbit the Sun.

Based on the above, Voyager 1 is still in the solar system, since it will take another three hundred years or so for it to reach the inner edge of the Oort cloud and another 30,000 years or so for it to exit the Oort cloud. Note that while Voyager 1 is not headed toward any particular star, it will pass within 1.6 light years of the star Gliese 445 (which is approaching us at about 119 km/s (430,000 km/h; 270,000 mph), in about 400,000 years’ time.

Voyager 1 carries a message of love

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NASA’s Longest-Lived Mission: Voyager Probes Log 45 Years in Space

By Jet Propulsion Laboratory August 19, 2022

This artist’s rendering shows NASA’s Voyager spacecraft. On the boom to the right, the Cosmic Ray Science instrument, Low Energy Charged Particle detector, the Infrared Spectrometer and Radiometer, Ultraviolet Spectrometer, Photopolarimeter and Wide and Narrow Angle Cameras are visible. The bright gray square is an optical calibration plate for the instruments. The Golden Record, containing images and sounds from Earth, is the yellow circle on the main spacecraft body. The dish is the spacecraft’s high-gain antenna for communications with Earth. The magnetometer boom stretches out to the upper left. The radio isotope thermoelectric generators, Voyager’s power source, are visible to the lower left. The two long thin rods extending out to the left are antennas used by the Plasma Wave instrument. The Planetary Radio instrument also used these antennas when it was turned on. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Launched in 1977, the twin Voyager probes are NASA ’s longest-operating mission and the only spacecraft ever to explore interstellar space.

Launched in 1977, NASA’s twin Voyager spacecraft inspired the world with pioneering visits to Jupiter , Saturn , Uranus , and Neptune . Their journey continues 45 years later as both probes explore interstellar space, the region outside the protective heliosphere created by our Sun. Researchers – some younger than the spacecraft – are now using Voyager data to solve mysteries of our solar system and beyond.

NASA’s twin Voyager probes have become, in many ways, time capsules of their era: They each carry an eight-track tape player for recording data, they transmit data about 38,000 times slower than a 5G internet connection, and they have about 3 million times less memory than modern cellphones.

Despite this, the Voyagers remain on the cutting edge of space exploration. Managed and operated by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL ) in Southern California, they are the only probes to ever explore interstellar space – the galactic ocean that our Sun and its planets travel through.

This archival image taken at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on March 23, 1977, shows engineers preparing the Voyager 2 spacecraft ahead of its launch later that year. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The Sun and the planets reside in the heliosphere, a protective bubble created by the Sun’s magnetic field and the outward flow of solar wind (charged particles from the Sun). Scientists – some of them younger than the two distant spacecraft – are combining Voyager’s observations with data from newer missions to get a more complete picture of our Sun and how the heliosphere interacts with interstellar space.

This archival photo shows engineers working on vibration acoustics and pyro shock testing of NASA’s Voyager on November 18, 1976. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

“The heliophysics mission fleet provides invaluable insights into our Sun, from understanding the corona or the outermost part of the Sun’s atmosphere, to examining the Sun’s impacts throughout the solar system, including here on Earth, in our atmosphere, and on into interstellar space,” said Nicola Fox, director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Over the last 45 years, the Voyager missions have been integral in providing this knowledge and have helped change our understanding of the Sun and its influence in ways no other spacecraft can.”

This image highlights the special cargo onboard NASA’s Voyager spacecraft: the Golden Record. Each of the two Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977 carry a 12-inch gold-plated phonograph record with images and sounds from Earth. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The Voyagers are also ambassadors for humanity, each carrying a golden record containing images of life on Earth, diagrams of basic scientific principles, and audio that includes sounds from nature, greetings in multiple languages, and music. The gold-coated records serve as a cosmic “message in a bottle” for anyone who might encounter the space probes. At the rate gold decays in space and is eroded by cosmic radiation, the records will last more than a billion years.

This processed color image of Jupiter was produced in 1990 by the U.S. Geological Survey from a Voyager image captured in 1979. Zones of light-colored, ascending clouds alternate with bands of dark, descending clouds. Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS

Beyond Expectations

Voyager 2 launched on August 20, 1977, quickly followed by Voyager 1 on September 5. Both probes traveled to Jupiter and Saturn , with Voyager 1 moving faster and reaching them first. Together, the probes unveiled much about the solar system’s two largest planets and their moons. Voyager 2 also became the first and only spacecraft to fly close to Uranus (in 1986) and Neptune (in 1989), offering humanity remarkable views of – and insights into – these distant worlds.

This photo of Jupiter was taken by NASA’s Voyager 1 on the evening of March 1, 1979, from a distance of 2.7 million miles (4.3 million kilometers). The photo shows Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (top) and one of the white ovals. Credit: NASA/JPL

While Voyager 2 was conducting these flybys, Voyager 1 headed toward the boundary of the heliosphere. Upon exiting it in 2012 , Voyager 1 discovered that the heliosphere blocks 70% of cosmic rays, or energetic particles created by exploding stars. Voyager 2, after completing its planetary explorations, continued to the heliosphere boundary, exiting in 2018 . The twin spacecraft’s combined data from this region has challenged previous theories about the exact shape of the heliosphere.

NASA’s Voyager 1 acquired this image of a volcanic explosion on Io on March 4, 1979, about 11 hours before the spacecraft’s closest approach to the moon of Jupiter. Credit: NASA/JPL

“Today, as both Voyagers explore interstellar space, they are providing humanity with observations of uncharted territory,” said Linda Spilker, Voyager’s deputy project scientist at JPL. “This is the first time we’ve been able to directly study how a star, our Sun, interacts with the particles and magnetic fields outside our heliosphere, helping scientists understand the local neighborhood between the stars, upending some of the theories about this region, and providing key information for future missions.”

This approximate natural-color image from NASA’s Voyager 2 shows Saturn, its rings, and four of its icy satellites. Three satellites Tethys, Dione, and Rhea are visible against the darkness of space. Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS

The Long Journey

Over the years, the Voyager team has grown accustomed to surmounting challenges that come with operating such mature spacecraft, sometimes calling upon retired colleagues for their expertise or digging through documents written decades ago.

Neptune’s green-blue atmosphere was shown in greater detail than ever before in this image from NASA’s Voyager 2 as the spacecraft rapidly approached its encounter with the giant planet in August 1989. Credit: NASA/JPL

This is an image of the planet Uranus taken by the spacecraft Voyager 2 in 1986. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

This image, taken by NASA’s Voyager 2 early in the morning of August 23, 1989, is a false color image of Triton, Neptune’s largest satellite; mottling in the bright southern hemisphere is present. Credit: NASA/JPL

This updated version of the iconic “Pale Blue Dot” image taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft uses modern image-processing software and techniques to revisit the well-known Voyager view while attempting to respect the original data and intent of those who planned the images. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Each Voyager is powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator containing plutonium, which gives off heat that is converted to electricity. As the plutonium decays, the heat output decreases and the Voyagers lose electricity. To compensate , the team turned off all nonessential systems and some once considered essential, including heaters that protect the still-operating instruments from the frigid temperatures of space. All five of the instruments that have had their heaters turned off since 2019 are still working, despite being well below the lowest temperatures they were ever tested at.

This illustrated graphic was made to mark Voyager 1’s entry into interstellar space in 2012. It puts solar system distances in perspective, with the scale bar in astronomical units and each set distance beyond 1 AU (the average distance between the Sun and Earth) representing 10 times the previous distance. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Recently, Voyager 1 began experiencing an issue that caused status information about one of its onboard systems to become garbled. Despite this, the system and spacecraft otherwise continue to operate normally, suggesting the problem is with the production of the status data, not the system itself. The probe is still sending back science observations while the engineering team tries to fix the problem or find a way to work around it.

This graphic highlights some of the Voyager mission’s key accomplishments. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

“The Voyagers have continued to make amazing discoveries, inspiring a new generation of scientists and engineers,” said Suzanne Dodd, project manager for Voyager at JPL. “We don’t know how long the mission will continue, but we can be sure that the spacecraft will provide even more scientific surprises as they travel farther away from the Earth.”

This graphic provides some of the mission’s key statistics from 2018, when NASA’s Voyager 2 probe exited the heliosphere. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

More About the Mission

A division of Caltech in Pasadena, JPL built and operates the Voyager spacecraft. The Voyager missions are a part of the NASA Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

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9 comments on "nasa’s longest-lived mission: voyager probes log 45 years in space".

How is information transmitted from Voyager back to Earth and vice versa? WiFi? I want WiFi that strong for my house. Serious question.

“The uplink communications are executed via S-band microwave communications. The downlink communications are carried out by an X-band microwave transmitter on board the spacecraft, with an S-band transmitter as a back-up. All long-range communications to and from the two Voyagers have been carried out using their 3.7-meter (12 ft) high-gain antennas. The high-gain antenna has a beamwidth of 0.5° for X-band, and 2.3° for S-band.[38]: 17  (The low-gain antenna has a 7 dB gain and 60° beamwidth.)[38]: 17 

Because of the inverse-square law in radio communications, the digital data rates used in the downlinks from the Voyagers have been continually decreasing the farther that they get from the Earth. For example, the data rate used from Jupiter was about 115,000 bits per second. That was halved at the distance of Saturn, and it has gone down continually since then.[38] Some measures were taken on the ground along the way to reduce the effects of the inverse-square law. In between 1982 and 1985, the diameters of the three main parabolic dish antennas of the Deep Space Network were increased from 64 to 70 m (210 to 230 ft)[38]: 34  dramatically increasing their areas for gathering weak microwave signals.

Whilst the craft were between Saturn and Uranus the onboard software was upgraded to do a degree of image compression and to use a more efficient Reed-Solomon error-correcting encoding.[38]: 33 

Then between 1986 and 1989, new techniques were brought into play to combine the signals from multiple antennas on the ground into one, more powerful signal, in a kind of an antenna array.[38]: 34  This was done at Goldstone, California, Canberra, and Madrid using the additional dish antennas available there. Also, in Australia, the Parkes Radio Telescope was brought into the array in time for the fly-by of Neptune in 1989. In the United States, the Very Large Array in New Mexico was brought into temporary use along with the antennas of the Deep Space Network at Goldstone.[38]: 34  Using this new technology of antenna arrays helped to compensate for the immense radio distance from Neptune to the Earth.”

Amazing accomplishment for humanity. This shows what humans can do when their energy is not consumed by fighting with each other. Not only is this a model for scientific inspiration, it’s a great argument for world peace.

The Voyager probes are *not* the only interstellar vehicles. You forgot Pioneer 10.

There are five interstellar probes, all launched by the American space agency NASA: Voyager 1, Voyager 2, Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11 and New Horizons. As of 2019, Voyager 1, Voyager 2 and Pioneer 10 are the only probes to have actually reached interstellar space. The other two are on interstellar trajectories.

Good catch!

The communications accomplishment exceeds even the accomplishment of placing the probes on trajectory.

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When Voyager 1 goes dark, what comes next?

NASA's 45-year-old probe is one of the farthest traveling crafts in space. But as Voyager shows its age, a new mission could seek to surpass it.

By Tatyana Woodall | Published Sep 16, 2022 6:00 AM EDT

Decades after Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2 , went their separate ways to explore the universe, the probe has lasted far longer than NASA ever expected—both have sent back discoveries of active volcanoes and new moons among the Jovian and Saturnian systems. Yet even for a spacecraft, getting older comes with its own set of problems. 

This year, without any known interference in its previously spotless record, the probe experienced a glitch in its attitude articulation and control system (AACS), the system which keeps its antennae pointed towards Earth. Confused about its position in space, the muddled probe began sending back inaccurate telemetry data through an onboard computer that had ceased functioning years earlier, corrupting the correct data. 

Although NASA engineers were recently able to fix the issue by commanding the system to revert back to its previous computer, Voyager’s slip begs the question: Is it time to retire one of the agency’s oldest, farthest-traveling space probes? Although the agency notes that the error isn’t a threat to the long-term health of the mission, some scientists have already been looking into creating Voyager’s heir-apparent. 

“We’ve gotten incredibly lucky with the Voyagers and so the fact that the things are still working as well as they are, is really a combination of technological miracle and some luck,“ says Ralph McNutt , the chief scientist for space science at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. “So if things go wrong, it’s not surprising.”

McNutt, who was lucky enough to be present at Cape Canaveral, Florida during Voyager 1’s launch in 1977, is the principal investigator of a team at the Applied Physics Laboratory that has recently submitted a detailed proposal to NASA for a mission concept that could far exceed Voyager’s limits. Dubbed the “Interstellar Probe,’ ‘ their craft would be able to travel even farther than the Voyager missions, while still seeking answers about the heliosphere, or the bubble-like region of space that shields our solar system from galactic radiation. 

[Related: How the most distant object ever made by humans is spending its dying days ]

With the right technology, McNutt’s probe concept could be ready to launch between 2036 to 2042, depending on when it’s able to get a gravity assist from Jupiter, where the craft’s orbit would use the planet’s gravitational pull to slingshot itself into space’s outer reaches. If Interstellar Probe does come to fruition, the mission could end up breaking its predecessor’s record as the most distant human-made object in the universe. And unlike the 45-year-old Voyager, which has succeeded its original mission lifetime by a factor of 10, says McNutt, Interstellar Probe would be reliable enough to last for at least 50 years. 

But a potential launch would still be some years away. Although NASA did fund the initial study, the concept is still in its early stages, and won’t be turned into an official mission until it’s been reviewed and chosen by a decadal survey committee, whose decisions could take another two years to be finalized. 

But why exactly do we need probes when astronomers now have access to powerful telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope and the long-awaited dark matter hunter, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope ? The simple answer is that the missions often have different priorities and contrasting capabilities. Probes like Voyager and the Parker Solar Probe , are heliophysics missions that study the sun’s influence in space, whereas JWST and Roman are astrophysics missions that study objects like exoplanets and faraway galaxies. Despite their differences, probes and bigger survey telescopes like JWST are also two sides of the same coin. Their discoveries are both needed to create an accurate, more comprehensive picture of our cosmic surroundings. 

[Related: What we learn from noisy signals from deep space ]

While Voyager isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, some experts are appreciative of the fact that many in the scientific community are planning for the day Voyager might go dark. 

“Around 2030 is probably the last time that any of the instruments on Voyager will work,“ says Merav Opher , a professor of astronomy at Boston University, who has long been involved with the Voyager team. She says it’s encouraging that so many of her colleagues are working on next-generation projects that could eventually utilize Voyager’s knowledge to the fullest. 

“This long-term mission needs diversity,” she says. “Attention to diversity in teams is not just good diversity, but it’s good to make discoveries.” 

Tatyana Woodall is a regular contributor to Popular Science. Based in Ohio, she’s extremely interested in how science and technology intertwine in daily life.

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Engineers Pinpoint Cause of Voyager 1 Issue, Are Working on Solution

Engineers have confirmed that a small portion of corrupted memory in one of the computers aboard NASA’s Voyager 1 has been causing the spacecraft to send unreadable science and engineering data to Earth since last November. Called the flight data subsystem (FDS), the computer is responsible for packaging the probe’s science and engineering data before the telemetry modulation unit (TMU) and radio transmitter send the data to Earth.

In early March , the team issued a “poke” command to prompt the spacecraft to send back a readout of the FDS memory, which includes the computer’s software code as well as variables (values used in the code that can change based on commands or the spacecraft’s status). Using the readout, the team has confirmed that about 3% of the FDS memory has been corrupted, preventing the computer from carrying out normal operations.

The team suspects that a single chip responsible for storing part of the affected portion of the FDS memory isn’t working. Engineers can’t determine with certainty what caused the issue. Two possibilities are that the chip could have been hit by an energetic particle from space or that it simply may have worn out after 46 years.

Although it may take weeks or months, engineers are optimistic they can find a way for the FDS to operate normally without the unusable memory hardware, which would enable Voyager 1 to begin returning science and engineering data again.

Launched in 1977 , the twin Voyager spacecraft flew by Saturn and Jupiter, and Voyager 2 flew by Uranus and Neptune. They are both exploring interstellar space, outside the bubble of particles and magnetic fields created by the Sun, called the heliosphere. Voyager 2 continues to operate normally.

News Media Contact Calla Cofield Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 626-808-2469 [email protected]

15 Interesting Facts And Statistics About Voyager 1 and Voyager 2

NASA’s most iconic and two of the well known space probes Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched in 1977, one month apart from each other from the Cape Canaveral facility in Florida. The two probes were originally designed to study the outer solar system with flybys of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. While an encounter with Pluto could also have been arranged, however a more promising flyby of Titan took precedence.

Both the Voyager probes are currently exploring the outermost limits of the sun’s magnetic field and the realms of interstellar space. Had both the Voyager probes ended their missions right after completing their initial mission, it still would be one of the biggest achievement in the history of mankind.

Even after doubling their intended journey already, the Voyagers continue to transmit critical scientific data back to earth, which has led to the discovery of various unknown aspects of our solar system and beyond. It is also helping researchers to answer complex questions about the evolution of planets in the solar system. Below are few of the most interesting facts and statistics about Voyager probes that one should know.

Table of Contents

15. Voyagers Were Originally a Part of the Mariner Program

The two Voyager probes were initially conceived under the Grand Tour Program , in which a total of four robotic probes would visit all the five outer planets in our solar system (Pluto was considered a planet back then). The program was cancelled after the estimated cost of the entire mission exceed $1 billion.

The idea of a Jupiter-Saturn flyby was however revived in a downscale mode under the Mariner program. Mariner was a 10 mission program, which performed the first planetary flyby of the inner planets in the mid 1960s. Instead of four, only two probes were sanctioned to conduct a flyby of four outer planets and Saturn’s moon Titan. The program was later renamed the Voyager, couple of months before the launch in 1977.

14. The Voyager 2 was Launched Before Voyager 1

To take the full advantage of the rare planetary alignment, the two probes were launched using two different trajectories. The Voyager 2 was the first to launch on August 20th 1977. It visited Jupiter, then Saturn and the timing of its launch allowed the probe to visit Uranus and Neptune.

Voyager 1 was launched about two weeks after the Voyager 2 from Cape Canaveral launch site. The probe took a more direct route and reached Jupiter three months before her sister probe. It encounter Saturn a year later in 1980 and then went on to explore the interstellar space. A Titan flyby was an important component of Voyager 1 trajectory.

13. The Golden Record

Both probes carry a specially carved gold-plated audio and video disc. The disc contains sounds and images of selected objects and creatures on earth to portray the diversity of life here, for intelligent lifeforms out there in space. The records carry images of Earth, the sounds of other animals, a wide collection of music, along with other scientific information.

It also carries verbal greetings in 55 different languages. All the contents of the golden record were selected by the famous astronomer Carl Sagan, along with others like Frank Drake, Timothy Ferris and Ann Druyan.

12. Voyager 1 Took the Farthest Ever Image of Our Solar System

On Feb 14, 1990, after the Voyager 1 passed the orbits of Pluto, it took one last picture of the Earth and solar system. At that time the probe was 6 billion kilometers away from the Sun or at a distance of 40.5 AU (Pluto is 39.5 AU). It took the first ever “ family portrait ” of the Sun along with the planets.

In this image, Earth appears nothing more than a tiny dot in the space, occupying less space than a pixel. The idea of taking an image of the earth of this magnitude was initially suggested by the Carl Sagan back in 1980.

Read: 20 Most Stunning Images Captured By Cassini Spacecraft

11. How Big Are The Voyager probes?

Without antennas and outer structures, the core body of the probes is not more than 4 meters on each side. Both carry various identical structures of different heights. At the time of launch, the Voyager weight was around 815 kilograms, including fuel. In comparison, it is much lighter than even a compact car.

According to an estimation, the current weight of the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 is 733 kg and 735 kg respectively. The difference in weight is due to the fuel remaining in both the probes, which are used to power the thrusters.

10. Where are the They Now?

The Voyagers are surely the farthest man made objects in the space, but where are they exactly? According to NASA, the data retrieved from Voyager 1 at the end of 2012 indicated that the probe had already left the solar system . By June 2012, the probe started detecting changes in its environment and reported a significant increase in radiation from the interstellar space, which are normally deflected by the heliosphere.

The probe is now more than 21 billion kilometers away from the earth in the interstellar medium, travelling at an estimated velocity (relative to the Sun) of 16.9995 kps. The Voyager 2 on the other hand is about 17.5 billion km away from the Earth and is currently travelling through the heliosheath.

9. Where they are heading?

Unless they collide with any interstellar object and come to an abrupt end, both the Voyagers are bound to wander the Milky Way for eternity . Though the Voyager 1 is not headed towards any particular star, in about 40,000 years, it will make a close pass by of the star Gliese 445, located 17.1 light years away from the earth in the constellation of Camelopardalis.

Her twin sister, the Voyager 2 is expected to reach the interstellar space sometime between 2019 to 2020. Based on its current trajectory and velocity, it is expected to pass by the star Ross 248 in 40,000 years. If left undisturbed, it should come within 4.3 light years distance to Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky in about 296,000 years.

8. How They Communicate With Earth?

The communication apparatus of the two probes was designed to withstand harsh conditions and were intended to be used beyond the limits of the solar system. They normally transmit data with the help of a high-gain antenna, which are then received by NASA’s Deep Space Network satellites here on Earth.

In situations where any of the space probes are unable to send data in near real time, an on-board DTR or digital tape recorder can store the 64 kilobytes of data and send it back to earth based receivers some other time.

7. Computers Used on Voyager Spacecrafts

There are basically three types of computers on-board both the Voyager spacecrafts. With two of each type.

Computer Command System (CCS ): It’s a 18 bit, interrupt type processor with a non-volatile memory. CCS basically has two broad functions; receive instructions from the earth based controllers and administer the spacecraft and look out of any malfunctions. It controls various important functions in the probe, including cameras, fault detection, sequencing routines and antenna pointing routines.

Flight Data System (FDS) : Flight Data System is a 16 bit word machine with modular memories. It carries an imaging parameter table, which controls all the visible light operation of the on-board camera.

Attitude and Articulation Control System (AACS) : The Attitude and Articulation Control System guide the orientation of the probe and controls the direction of high gain antenna.

6. And How Fast Are Their Computers?

The computers aboard in Voyager probes have 69.3 kilobytes of memory in total, each. That’s enough for an average JPEG image file. At their maximum, its machines are capable of performing 81,000 instructions/second . An old smartphone is probably 7,500 times faster. Moreover, both the probes send data back to earth at the rate of 160 bits per seconds, that’s way slower than even a dial up connection.

5. How Much longer can the Voyagers Continue to Function?

To power their electric instruments, both the Voyagers are equipped with three radioisotope thermoelectric generators or RTGs, with each having 24 pressed plutonium-238 oxide spheres. Due to the fact that the total power output of these generators declines over time, power management has now become an important component of the mission.

The mission controllers have opted to disable various on-board instruments on both the probes which are less likely to provide any important information in order to save energy. However, engineers believe that they have to start shutting Voyager 2 instruments one by one from 2020 to extend its life. Both the probes are expected to relay information until its power dries out in 2025.

Read: 26 Fascinating Facts About NASA

4. What Are their Most Important Discoveries?

The Voyagers began their journey of scientific exploration shortly after reaching Jupiter. At that time, it was only the second mission to study the gas giant. Here, both Voyagers made close studies about its moon and magnetic field, the probes were the first to detect Jovian planetary rings. Volcanic eruption on the surface of Io, one of Jupiter’s moons, was also captured by Voyager 1.

Then, during their flyby of Saturn, they discovered the high concentration of hydrogen in its upper atmosphere and its fluctuating temperatures in different pressure zones. One of the main interest of the Voyager 1 was a flyby of Titan, which was known to have an atmosphere.

Further exploration of Saturn’s moon Titan resulted in future missions like Galileo mission and the Cassini mission to Saturn as well as the discovery of three new satellites at Saturn using Earth-based instruments.

3. Voyager 2 Discoveries During its Uranus and Neptune Flyby

To this day, Voyager 2 remains the only probe to visit the two ice giants at very far end of the solar system. Voyager studied about Uranus’ complex atmosphere, found several new moons and its ring system. For the first time, we were able to discover the significant magnetic field of the planet.

Read: Uranus’ Atmosphere Smells Like Rotten Egg Due To Hydrogen Sulfide

Even though, Neptune has been studied for years with the help of more advanced telescopes, data from Voyager 2 is still considered the best in Neptune’s case. Voyager 2’s flyby of this big icy planet revealed its dynamic atmosphere and furious winds, which were nine times stronger than anything on the Earth.

One of its mysterious discoveries on Neptune was the Great Dark Spot. However, the spot disappeared during the Hubble’s observations in 1994.

2. A Group of Amateur Radio Astronomers Tracked Voyager 1 in 2006

Back in 2006, a group of amateur radio astronomers from the AMSAT Germany tracked down Voyager 1 after receiving  radio signals from the probe. It was an unprecedented feat and currently remain that way. The data was later cross-checked and verified by the researchers at the Deep Space Network station at Madrid, Spain.

In 2014, NASA announced that the distant probe had entered a region of space called heliosheath and was at 94 AU.

1. Have they actually exited the solar system?

The answer is no. Sometimes its mentioned that the Voyager probes along with Pioneers 10 and 11 have already left the solar system but it is technically not true. Right now there are five man-made satellites that have crossed all the known planets in our solar system, the latest being the New Horizons but none of them have actually exited the solar system.

Read: Will We Ever Make It to Stars Outside Our Solar System?

To depart our solar system in a true sense, one need to cross the Oort cloud. The Oort cloud is basically giant spherical shell orbiting the Sun, which is comprised of billions of small and large icy bodies. Researchers believe that the actual limits of the solar system is extended to the outer edge of the Oort cloud, which stretches from 0.8 – 3.2 light years.

From their current positions, Voyagers will take about 300 years to reach the Oort cloud and another 30,000 years to cross it.

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Space probes have been instrumental in exploring the vast and mysterious expanse beyond our planet. These extraordinary machines have ventured into the unknown, providing us with invaluable insights about our solar system and the universe at large. While we may be familiar with some of their remarkable accomplishments, there are also some surprising facts about space probes that might astonish us. From mind-boggling speeds to incredible longevity, these space-faring devices have defied expectations and continue to push the boundaries of human knowledge. In this article, we will explore 9 fascinating and unexpected facts about space probes, shedding light on their incredible journeys and the extraordinary discoveries they have made along the way.

Key Takeaways:

• Space probes like Voyager 1 and Juno are uncovering secrets about distant planets and moons, expanding our understanding of the universe and sparking our curiosity about what lies beyond Earth.
• From capturing stunning images of Pluto to searching for signs of water on Mars, space probes have revolutionized our knowledge of the cosmos, inspiring us to continue exploring the mysteries of space.

The Voyager 1 probe is the farthest man-made object from Earth.

The Voyager 1 probe, launched by NASA in 1977, holds the record for being the farthest man-made object from Earth . As of 2020, it has traveled over 13 billion miles and has entered interstellar space. This incredible achievement has allowed scientists to gather valuable data about the outer regions of our solar system .

The Hubble Space Telescope was serviced by space shuttles.

The Hubble Space Telescope, known for its breathtaking images of distant galaxies , was launched into orbit by the space shuttle Discovery in Over the years, it has been serviced and repaired by space shuttle missions, allowing it to capture even more stunning views of the universe.

The Juno probe is studying Jupiter’s mysterious magnetic field.

Launched in 2011, the Juno probe is on a mission to study Jupiter’s magnetic field and unlock the secrets of the largest planet in our solar system. By gathering data on Jupiter’s auroras, atmosphere, and internal structure, scientists hope to better understand the formation and evolution of giant gas planets.

The Mars rovers have revolutionized our understanding of the Red Planet.

With the successful landing of the Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity rovers, we have gained unprecedented insights into the geology, climate, and potential habitability of Mars . These robotic explorers have provided evidence of past water on Mars and paved the way for future human missions to the planet.

The New Horizons probe captured stunning images of Pluto.

Launched in 2006, the New Horizons probe completed a historic flyby of Pluto in 2015, providing us with the first close-up images of this distant dwarf planet. The detailed photographs revealed a complex and diverse surface, challenging our previous assumptions about Pluto’s composition.

The Cassini spacecraft explored Saturn and its moons.

The Cassini spacecraft, a joint mission between NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency, orbited Saturn for over 13 years. This remarkable probe provided us with captivating images of Saturn’s rings, discovered new moons, and made significant contributions to our understanding of the planet’s atmosphere.

The Galileo probe discovered evidence of a subsurface ocean on Jupiter’s moon, Europa.

During its journey to Jupiter, the Galileo probe detected magnetic field anomalies that suggest the presence of a subsurface ocean on Europa, one of Jupiter’s largest moons. This finding has fueled speculation about the potential for life in our solar system beyond Earth.

The Rosetta probe landed a spacecraft on a comet.

In 2014, the Rosetta probe successfully deployed the Philae lander onto Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, marking the first-ever soft landing on a comet. This groundbreaking achievement provided valuable data about the composition and structure of comets , offering insights into the origins of our solar system.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been searching for signs of water on Mars.

Equipped with advanced instruments, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been scanning the Martian surface for evidence of water, both past, and present. Its high-resolution images have revealed intriguing features like gullies and recurring slope lineae, raising hopes for the existence of liquid water on the Red Planet.

In conclusion, space probes have revolutionized our understanding of the universe and continue to unlock its mysteries. These remarkable technological marvels have provided us with invaluable data and breathtaking images, transforming our perception of the vastness and beauty of space. From the first successful missions to the latest cutting-edge explorations, space probes have played a vital role in expanding our knowledge of distant celestial bodies, planetary systems, and the origins of the universe itself.As we continue to explore the depths of space, the remarkable capabilities of space probes will undoubtedly lead to more surprising discoveries, pushing the boundaries of human knowledge and understanding. Whether it’s uncovering new exoplanets, studying the composition of distant celestial bodies, or shedding light on the nature of black holes, space probes will continue to be our eyes and ears in the cosmos. The future of space exploration holds endless possibilities, thanks to these incredible machines that allow us to reach for the stars.

Q: How do space probes work?

A: Space probes are equipped with advanced scientific instruments and propulsion systems. They are launched into space on powerful rockets and use their propulsion systems to navigate through the vastness of space. They gather data by various means, such as capturing images, conducting experiments, and collecting samples, and transmit the information back to Earth.

Q: What is the purpose of space probes?

A: The primary purpose of space probes is to explore and study celestial bodies beyond Earth. They provide us with valuable information about the composition, atmosphere, and geology of distant planets, moons, asteroids, and comets. They also help in understanding the origins and evolution of the universe.

Q: How far have space probes traveled?

A: Some space probes, like Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, have ventured far beyond our solar system and are currently traveling through interstellar space. Voyager 1 holds the record for the farthest human-made object, currently over 14 billion miles away from Earth.

Q: Can space probes be controlled from Earth?

A: Yes , space probes can be controlled from Earth. Scientists and engineers on Earth send commands to the space probes and receive data from them using sophisticated communication systems. However, due to the vast distances involved, there might be a significant time delay between sending a command and receiving the response.

Q: Have space probes discovered signs of life in the universe?

A: Although space probes have not discovered direct evidence of extraterrestrial life, they have provided valuable information about the potential habitability of other planets and moons. For example, the Mars rovers have found evidence of past water on Mars, a key ingredient for life as we know it.

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• WHAT THEY ARE SAYING: Biden-⁠Harris Administration Announces a New Action to Defend U.S. Workers and Industry from China’s Targeting of the Maritime, Logistics, and Shipbuilding Sectors for Dominance
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USTR Initiates Section 301 Investigation of China’s Targeting of the Maritime, Logistics, and Shipbuilding Sectors for Dominance

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April 17, 2024

WASHINGTON – The United States Trade Representative announced today that after review of a petition filed with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) by five national labor unions, USTR is initiating an investigation of acts, policies, and practices of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) targeting the maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sectors for dominance.

“The petition presents serious and concerning allegations of the PRC’s longstanding efforts to dominate the maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sectors, cataloguing the PRC’s use of unfair, non-market policies and practices to achieve those goals. The allegations reflect what we have already seen across other sectors, where the PRC utilizes a wide range of non-market policies and practices to undermine fair competition and dominate the market, both in China and globally,” said Ambassador Katherine Tai . “I pledge to undertake a full and thorough investigation into the unions’ concerns.”

As explained in a  formal notice , USTR is seeking public comments and will hold a public hearing in connection with this investigation.

Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended, (Trade Act) is designed to address unfair foreign practices affecting U.S. commerce. Section 301 may be used to respond to unjustifiable, unreasonable, or discriminatory foreign government practices that burden or restrict U.S. commerce. The Section 301 provisions of the Trade Act provide a domestic procedure through which interested persons may petition the U.S. Trade Representative to investigate a foreign government act, policy, or practice and take appropriate action.   On March 12, 2024, five national labor unions filed a petition requesting an investigation into the acts, policies, and practices of the PRC targeting the maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sectors for dominance. The five petitioner unions are:

• the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, AFL-CIO CLC (“USW”);
• the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (“IAM”);
• the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers, AFL-CIO/CLC (“IBB”);
• the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (“IBEW”); and
• the Maritime Trades Department, AFL-CIO (“MTD”).

The petition was filed pursuant to Section 302(a)(1) of the Trade Act (19 U.S.C. § 2412(a)(1)), requesting action pursuant to Section 301(b) (19 U.S.C. § 2411(b)). A Section 301(b) investigation examines whether the acts, policies, or practices are unreasonable or discriminatory and burden or restrict U.S. commerce. After consideration of the petition and on the advice of the Section 301 Committee, the United States Trade Representative has initiated an investigation. The U.S. Trade Representative must seek consultations with the foreign government whose acts, policies, or practices are under investigation. USTR has requested consultations with the People’s Republic of China in connection with the investigation.

A copy of the petition is available here .

A docket for comments regarding the investigation will be available here .

A docket for requests to appear at the public hearing to be held in connection with this investigation will be available here .  

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Democratic donors paid more than $1M for Biden’s legal bills for special counsel probe

President Joe Biden speaks during a news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in the Rose Garden of the White House, Wednesday, April 10, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic donors covered more than $1 million in legal fees racked up by attorneys representing President Joe Biden in a yearlong special counsel probe into his handling of classified documents.

The use of party funds to cover Biden’s legal bills is not without precedent and falls within the bounds of campaign finance law, but it could cloud Biden’s ability to continue to hammer former President Donald Trump over his far more extensive use of donor funds to cover his legal bills.

The former president has tapped more than $100 million in donor money for a web of legal challenges, ranging from his upcoming criminal trial in New York over hush money payments to ongoing prosecutions over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection and his refusal to turn over classified documents to the federal government after leaving office.

For months, Biden aides and advisers have criticized Trump and Republicans for their spending on the former president’s legal issues, which has left the GOP campaign cash-strapped and diverted resources from battleground states.

“We are not spending money on legal bills or hawking gold sneakers,” Biden campaign finance chair Rufus Gifford told MSNBC last week.

The payments to Biden attorney Bob Bauer and the law firm Hemenway & Barnes were disclosed in regular campaign finance reports to the Federal Election Commission. Two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the payments, confirmed the money went for work on the Biden probe. Axios first reported on the payments.

The money for Biden’s legal team came from the Democratic National Committee’s legal account, according to the people. That account is primarily funded by high-dollar donors who have already met federal contribution limits for the party’s political activities.

“If these corrupt Democrats didn’t have HYPOCRISY, they’d have NOTHING!” the Republican National Committee said in a post Friday on X.