voyager satellite tracking

Voyager 1 Ephemeris Calculator

Compute the position of Voyager 1 for any date and time between 1 January 2013 and 30 December 2099 and display the results on an interactive star map.

Voyager 1 is a space probe launched by NASA on September 5, 1977, to study the outer Solar System and beyond. It is currently the most distant human-made object from Earth, having traveled over 14 billion miles (23 billion kilometers) from the Sun. Voyager 1's mission has included flybys of Jupiter and Saturn, with the goal of studying their moons, rings, and magnetic fields. The probe is now traveling through the heliosheath , the outermost layer of the Sun's heliosphere, and is expected to enter interstellar space in the coming years. Voyager 1 carries a golden record that contains sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth, in the event that it is ever encountered by extraterrestrial life.

Voyager 1 is currently in the constellation of Ophiucus , at a distance of 24,328,576,897 kilometers from Earth.

Today's rise, transit and set times of Voyager 1 from Greenwich, United Kingdom edit_location_alt (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

• Voyager 1 is above the horizon from Greenwich, United Kingdom edit_location_alt .
• Right now it is placed in the South-South-West direction at an altitude of 47° above the horizon.
• Go to interactive sky chart

If you need to access this information frequently for your observations, you can create a simple customized Quick Access page , so that you can easily bookmark it in your browser favorites or add a shortcut to your mobile phones' home screen.

• Position and finder charts (see also Where is Voyager 1? )
• Distance from Earth (see also How far is Voyager 1 from Earth? )
• When does Voyager 1 rise and set?
• Interactive orbit visualization . 3d visualization showing the orbit of Voyager 1 with respect to the major Solar System objects.
• 15 days ephemerides . Table showing celestial coordinates and magnitude of Voyager 1 for the past and next 7 days.
• Interactive sky chart . An online planetarium application that shows where to locate Voyager 1 in the sky from your location.
• Live position tracker . A high precision sky chart that uses real deep sky imagery to help locate Voyager 1 with your telescope or on your astrophotographies.

Voyager 1 Position and Finder Charts

Higher precision deep sky finder chart, 60 arcmin wide, showing where Voyager 1 is right now. Click on the image to see a more detailed fullscreen tracker view .

Also check out Where is Voyager 1? , a page that provides all the information needed to find Voyager 1 in the sky and additional links to sky charts.

Voyager 1 Distance from Earth

The distance of Voyager 1 from Earth is currently 24,328,576,897 kilometers, equivalent to 162.626492 Astronomical Units . Light takes 22 hours, 32 minutes and 31.3974 seconds to travel from Voyager 1 and arrive to us.

The following chart shows the distance of Voyager 1 from Earth as a function of time. In the chart the distance data is measured in Astronomical Units and sampled with an interval of 1 day.

Closest Approach of Voyager 1 to Earth

NOTE: values for the closest approach are computed with a sampling interval of 1 day.

Visualization of Voyager 1 Orbit

This 3d orbit diagram is a feature of our 3D Solar System Simulator and shows the orbit of Voyager 1 with respect of the Sun and the orbits of the major planets . The position of Voyager 1 and the planets along their orbits in this diagram accurately represents the current configuration of the objects in the Solar System. This is an experimental feature and it requires a WebGL enabled browser. Please provide us feedback !

Voyager 1 15 Days Ephemeris

The following table lists the ephemerides of Voyager 1 computed for the past and next 7 days, with a 24 hours interval. Click on each row of the table to locate Voyager 1 in our Online Planetarium at the chosen date.

Voyager 1 Trajectory through the Solar System

• Released Thursday, August 31, 2017
• Visualizations by:
• Tom Bridgman

This visualization tracks the trajectory of the Voyager 1 spacecraft through the solar system. Launched on September 5, 1977, it was one of two spacecraft sent to visit the giant planets of the outer solar system. Voyager 1 flew by Jupiter and Saturn before being directed out of the solar system. To fit the 40 year history of the mission into a short visualization, the pacing of time accelerates through most of the movie, starting at about 5 days per second at the beginning and speeding up to about 11 months per second after the planet flybys are past. The termination shock and heliopause are the 'boundaries' created when the plasma between the stars interacts with the plasma flowing outward from the Sun. They are represented with simple grid models and oriented so their 'nose' is pointed in the direction (Right Ascension = 17h 24m, declination = 17 degrees south) represented by more recent measurements from other missions.

Visualization centered on the Voyager 1 trajectory through the solar system.

• Voyager.ChaseV1.HD1080i_p30.mp4 (1920x1080) [120.3 MB]
• Voyager.ChaseV1.HD1080i_p30.webm (1920x1080) [15.4 MB]
• Voyager.ChaseV1.clockSlate_2160p30.mp4 (3840x2160) [210.8 MB]
• Voyager.ChaseV1.clockSlate (1920x1080) [256.0 KB]
• Voyager.ChaseV1.clockSlate (3840x2160) [256.0 KB]
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• Voyager.ChaseV1.clockSlate_Track.HD1080i.03905_searchweb.png (320x180) [68.6 KB]
• Voyager.ChaseV1.clockSlate_Track.HD1080i.03905_thm.png (80x40) [4.4 KB]

Voyager 1's 'Family Portrait' On Valentine's Day 1990, Voyager 1's camera were pointed back at the solar system to image the planets. Check out Voyager at NASA/JPL for more information.

• Voyager.ChaseV1.clockSlate_Track.UHD3840.00000_print.jpg (1024x576) [104.9 KB]

Opening view of Earth orbit looking outward to the rest of the solar system.

• Voyager.ChaseV1.clockSlate_Track.UHD3840.00550_print.jpg (1024x576) [117.4 KB]

Voyager 1 (and 2) cross the orbit of Mars, slightly above the ecliptic plane to avoid the asteroid belt between Mars & Jupiter.

• Voyager.ChaseV1.clockSlate_Track.UHD3840.01490_print.jpg (1024x576) [113.3 KB]

The camera moves out ahead of the Voyagers for a view back at the inner solar system.

• Voyager.ChaseV1.clockSlate_Track.UHD3840.01990_print.jpg (1024x576) [102.3 KB]

Voyager 1 just after the Jupiter flyby on March 5, 1979.

• Voyager.ChaseV1.clockSlate_Track.UHD3840.02420_print.jpg (1024x576) [101.8 KB]

Voyager 1 just before the Saturn flyby on November 12, 1980.

• Voyager.ChaseV1.clockSlate_Track.UHD3840.02990_print.jpg (1024x576) [123.1 KB]

With a gravity-assist from the Saturn flyby, Voyager 1 is directed above the plane of the solar system and continues outward. This is near the time of the Voyager 1 'Family Portrait'. The orbit of Pluto is the grey orbit visible above the orbits of the other planets.

• Voyager.ChaseV1.clockSlate_Track.UHD3840.03350_print.jpg (1024x576) [97.5 KB]

Voyager 1 crosses the termination shock of the solar wind. For simplified and symmetric termination shock model, the timing is not accurate. In reality, this crossing occurred around December of 2004.

• Voyager.ChaseV1.clockSlate_Track.UHD3840.03900_print.jpg (1024x576) [99.4 KB]

Voyager 1 (and 2) beyond the heliopause near the end of 2017.

A slightly sped-up version of the Voyager 1 visualization above, reducing the time for the Voyagers to cross the asteroid belt.

• Voyager1SpedUp.m4v (1920x1080) [123.0 MB]
• Voyager1SpedUp.webm (1920x1080) [12.2 MB]
• Voyager1_Sped_Up-HD1080p.mov (1920x1080) [185.8 MB]
• Voyager1_Sped_Up.mov (1920x1080) [1.7 GB]
• Voyager_1_Sped_Up_4k-H264.mov (3840x2160) [639.6 MB]
• Voyager_1_Sped_Up_4k_ProRes.mov (3840x2160) [7.2 GB]
• Voyager1SpedUp.00500_print.jpg (1024x576) [122.6 KB]
• Solar System

Please give credit for this item to: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

• Tom Bridgman  (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
• Kathalina Tran  (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
• Genna Duberstein  (USRA)
• Scott Wiessinger  (USRA)

Project support

• Laurence Schuler  (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
• Ian Jones  (ADNET Systems, Inc.)

Release date

This page was originally published on Thursday, August 31, 2017. This page was last updated on Wednesday, November 15, 2023 at 12:05 AM EST.

• Voyager @ 40
• Voyager Retrospective

Datasets used in this visualization

Planetary ephemerides SPICE kernel

Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.

Hubble’s Brand New Image of Jupiter

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Engineers Investigating NASA’s Voyager 1 Telemetry Data

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft, shown in this illustration, has been exploring our solar system since 1977, along with its twin, Voyager 2.

While the spacecraft continues to return science data and otherwise operate as normal, the mission team is searching for the source of a system data issue.

The engineering team with NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is trying to solve a mystery: The interstellar explorer is operating normally, receiving and executing commands from Earth, along with gathering and returning science data. But readouts from the probe’s attitude articulation and control system (AACS) don’t reflect what’s actually happening onboard.

The AACS controls the 45-year-old spacecraft’s orientation. Among other tasks, it keeps Voyager 1’s high-gain antenna pointed precisely at Earth, enabling it to send data home. All signs suggest the AACS is still working, but the telemetry data it’s returning is invalid. For instance, the data may appear to be randomly generated, or does not reflect any possible state the AACS could be in.

The issue hasn’t triggered any onboard fault protection systems, which are designed to put the spacecraft into “safe mode” – a state where only essential operations are carried out, giving engineers time to diagnose an issue. Voyager 1’s signal hasn’t weakened, either, which suggests the high-gain antenna remains in its prescribed orientation with Earth.

Get the Latest JPL News

The team will continue to monitor the signal closely as they continue to determine whether the invalid data is coming directly from the AACS or another system involved in producing and sending telemetry data. Until the nature of the issue is better understood, the team cannot anticipate whether this might affect how long the spacecraft can collect and transmit science data.

Voyager 1 is currently 14.5 billion miles (23.3 billion kilometers) from Earth, and it takes light 20 hours and 33 minutes to travel that difference. That means it takes roughly two days to send a message to Voyager 1 and get a response – a delay the mission team is well accustomed to.

“A mystery like this is sort of par for the course at this stage of the Voyager mission,” said Suzanne Dodd, project manager for Voyager 1 and 2 at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “The spacecraft are both almost 45 years old, which is far beyond what the mission planners anticipated. We’re also in interstellar space – a high-radiation environment that no spacecraft have flown in before. So there are some big challenges for the engineering team. But I think if there’s a way to solve this issue with the AACS, our team will find it.”

It’s possible the team may not find the source of the anomaly and will instead adapt to it, Dodd said. If they do find the source, they may be able to solve the issue through software changes or potentially by using one of the spacecraft’s redundant hardware systems.

It wouldn’t be the first time the Voyager team has relied on backup hardware: In 2017, Voyager 1’s primary thrusters showed signs of degradation, so engineers switched to another set of thrusters that had originally been used during the spacecraft’s planetary encounters . Those thrusters worked, despite having been unused for 37 years.

Voyager 1’s twin, Voyager 2 (currently 12.1 billion miles, or 19.5 billion kilometers, from Earth), continues to operate normally.

Launched in 1977, both Voyagers have operated far longer than mission planners expected, and are the only spacecraft to collect data in interstellar space. The information they provide from this region has helped drive a deeper understanding of the heliosphere, the diffuse barrier the Sun creates around the planets in our solar system.

Each spacecraft produces about 4 fewer watts of electrical power a year, limiting the number of systems the craft can run. The mission engineering team has switched off various subsystems and heaters in order to reserve power for science instruments and critical systems. No science instruments have been turned off yet as a result of the diminishing power, and the Voyager team is working to keep the two spacecraft operating and returning unique science beyond 2025.

While the engineers continue to work at solving the mystery that Voyager 1 has presented them, the mission’s scientists will continue to make the most of the data coming down from the spacecraft’s unique vantage point.

More About the Mission

The Voyager spacecraft were built by JPL, which continues to operate both. JPL is a division of Caltech in Pasadena. 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]

Alien-hunting array catches Voyager 1 signal from interstellar space

The Allen Telescope Array in California detected signal from the Voyager 1 probe, the NASA satellite launched 45 year ago that is currently speeding toward the outer edges of the solar system, way beyond the orbit of Pluto. 

Allen Telescope Array (ATA), a recently refurbished radio observatory near San Francisco in California dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life, made contact with the Voyager 1 probe on July 9, using 20 of its 42 dish antennas, which are each over 20 feet (6.1 meters) wide. The telescope recorded 15 minutes of data, according to a statement , which were stored on a disk. 

"The detection of Voyager 1, the farthest human-made object, with the refurbished Allen Telescope Array is an excellent display of the telescope's capabilities and strengths, and a representation of the outstanding hard work put by the ATA team since the start of the refurbishment program in 2019," the team said in the statement.

Related: Voyager 1 marks 10 years in interstellar space  

The statement didn't provide any additional information about the signal it caught. NASA has been investigating a strange glitch that has caused Voyager 1 to send back nonsense data about its location in space. NASA first reported the glitch in May , although it has not specified when the issue began. The agency is confident the spacecraft is safe because if the gibberish data were accurate, the signal from Voyager 1 wouldn't be properly pointed toward Earth.

Currently located about 14.5 billion miles (23.3 billion kilometers) away from Earth , 156 times the sun-Earth distance , Voyager 1 is still being tracked by NASA's Deep Space Network, sending a meager 160 bits per second of data back home. For comparison, a regular home broadband connection is measured in megabits per second, that is millions of bits per second.

The spacecraft, which entered what astronomers define as interstellar space 10 years ago , is measuring properties of the interstellar medium beyond the edge of the heliosphere, the bubble of plasma created by the sun that surrounds the planets.

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— Voyager 1 glitch? Strange signals from venerable probe has NASA baffled — Voyager 1 discovers faint plasma 'hum' in interstellar space

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

Voyager 1 still has to fly through the Oort Cloud , a spherical disc of comets and asteroids at the farthest reaches of the solar system , more than 2,000 sun-Earth distances away from the sun. 

No spacecraft has ever visited the Oort Cloud and Voyager 1 will take about 300 years to get there. By then, however, the probe will long be dead as it's expected to run out of fuel to power its systems as early as 2025.

Follow Tereza Pultarova on Twitter @TerezaPultarova . Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook . 

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Tereza is a London-based science and technology journalist, aspiring fiction writer and amateur gymnast. Originally from Prague, the Czech Republic, she spent the first seven years of her career working as a reporter, script-writer and presenter for various TV programmes of the Czech Public Service Television. She later took a career break to pursue further education and added a Master's in Science from the International Space University, France, to her Bachelor's in Journalism and Master's in Cultural Anthropology from Prague's Charles University. She worked as a reporter at the Engineering and Technology magazine, freelanced for a range of publications including Live Science, Space.com, Professional Engineering, Via Satellite and Space News and served as a maternity cover science editor at the European Space Agency.

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• The Contents
• The Making of
• Where Are They Now
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Q & A with Ed Stone

golden record

Where are they now.

• frequently asked questions
• Q&A with Ed Stone

The Golden Record

Pioneers 10 and 11, which preceded Voyager, both carried small metal plaques identifying their time and place of origin for the benefit of any other spacefarers that might find them in the distant future. With this example before them, NASA placed a more ambitious message aboard Voyager 1 and 2, a kind of time capsule, intended to communicate a story of our world to extraterrestrials. The Voyager message is carried by a phonograph record, a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth.