Astronomy: Voyager 1

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Voyager 1 Voyager 1 is a space probe launched by NASA on September 5, 19 77, as part of the Voyager program, to study the outer Solar System and the interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere. It was launched 16 days after its twin, Voyager 2. It communicates through the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) to receive routine commands and to transmit data to Earth.

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Why Voyager 1 matters: Every mission and telescope pushes the boundary of what humanity can observe and understand. These instruments are our eyes and hands reaching into the cosmos. Real-time distance and velocity data are provided by NASA and JPL. At a distance of 172.59 AU (25.8 billion km; 16.0 billion mi) as of March 2026, it is the most distant human-made object from Earth. Voyager 1 is also projected to reach a distance of one light day from Earth in November 2026. The probe made flybys of Jupiter, Saturn, and Saturn's largest moon, Titan. NASA had a choice of either conducting a Pluto or Titan flyby. Exploration of Titan took priority because it was known to have a substantial atmosphere. Voyager 1 studied the weather, magnetic fields, and rings of the two gas giants and was the first probe to provide detailed images of their moons. As part of the Voyager program and like its sister craft Voyager 2, the spacecraft's extended mission is to locate and study the regions and boundaries of the outer heliosphere and to begin exploring the interstellar medium. Voyager 1 crossed the heliopause and entered interstellar space on August 25, 2012, making it the first spacecraft to do so. Two years later, Voyager 1 began experiencing a third wave of coronal mass ejections from the Sun that continued to at least December 15, 2014, further confirming that the probe is in interstellar space. In 2017, the Voyager team successfully fired the spacecraft's trajectory correction maneuver (TCM) thrusters for the first time since 1980, enabling the mission to be extended by two to three years. Voyager 1 experienced successful revivals of several thrusters in 2018, 2019, and 2025. Voyager 1's extended mission is expected to continue to return scientific data for several more years. Its radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) may supply enough electric power to return engineering data until 2036.

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Deep dive: Voyager 1 At a distance of 172.59 AU (25.8 billion km; 16.0 billion mi) as of March 2026, it is the most distant human-made object from Earth. Voyager 1 is also projected to reach a distance of one light day from Earth in November 2026. The probe made flybys of Jupiter, Saturn, and Saturn's largest moon, Titan. NASA had a choice of either conducting a Pluto or Titan flyby. Exploration of Titan took priority because it was known to have a substantial atmosphere. Voyager 1 studied the weather, magnetic fields, and rings of the two gas giants and was the first probe to provide detailed images of their moons. As part of the Voyager program and like its sister craft Voyager 2, the spacecraft's extended mission is to locate and study the regions and boundaries of the outer heliosphere and to begin exploring the interstellar medium. Voyager 1 crossed the heliopause and entered interstellar space on August 25, 2012, making it the first spacecraft to do so. Two years later, Voyager 1 began experiencing a third wave of coronal mass ejections from the Sun that continued to at least December 15, 2014, further confirming that the probe is in interstellar space. In 2017, the Voyager team successfully fired the spacecraft's trajectory correction maneuver (TCM) thrusters for the first time since 1980, enabling the mission to be extended by two to three years. Voyager 1 experienced successful revivals of several thrusters in 2018, 2019, and 2025. Voyager 1's extended mission is expected to continue to return scientific data for several more years. Its radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) may supply enough electric power to return engineering data until 2036. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_1 (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)