NASA · flyby active
Voyager 1
NASA's Voyager 1 flew past Jupiter and Saturn and in 2012 became the first spacecraft to reach interstellar space.
- Launch
- 5 September 1977
- Distance from Earth today
- 25.86 billion km172.9 AU · light: 23 h 58 min
- Distance from the Sun today
- 25.77 billion km172.2 AU
Live distance from Earth and chart →
Trajectory
Trajectory: JPL Horizons vectors (spacecraft -31) every 30 days, projected onto the ecliptic; compressed distance scale.
Mission timeline
- Launch from Cape Canaveral on a Titan IIIE-Centaur
- Closest approach to Jupiter; volcanoes spotted on Io
- Saturn flyby with a close pass of Titan
- Last images taken, including the Pale Blue Dot
- Overtakes Pioneer 10 as the most distant human-made object
- Crosses the termination shock of the solar wind
- Crosses the heliopause into interstellar space
About the mission
Voyager 1 left Earth in 1977 on a fast track to the giant planets. Its 1979 pass of Jupiter revealed erupting volcanoes on Io, and in 1980 it studied Saturn's rings and took a close look at Titan's hazy atmosphere. In 1990 it turned its camera back toward home for the Pale Blue Dot and a family portrait of the planets. In August 2012 it crossed the heliopause, the edge of the Sun's bubble of plasma, and it is now the most distant human-made object, still returning data from interstellar space with a dwindling set of instruments.