Five Things About NASA's Voyager Mission Voyager 2 launched on Aug. 20, 1977, and Voyager 1 launched about two weeks later, on Sept. 5. Since then, the spacecraft have been travelling along different flight paths and at different speeds. Now some 17.4 billion kilometres from the sun and hurtling toward interstellar space, Voyager 1 is the farthest human-made object from Earth. Voyager 2 is about 14.2 billion kilometres from the sun. Read more
NASA Invites Public to Journey Toward Interstellar Space
NASA will hold a special NASA Science Update at 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT) on Thursday, April 28, to discuss the unprecedented journey of NASA's twin Voyager spacecraft to the edge of our solar system. The event will be held at NASA Headquarters in Washington and will be broadcast live on NASA Television and streamed at http://www.nasa.gov . In addition, the event will be carried live on Ustream, with a live chat box available, at http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2 . Read more
Voyager 1, the most distant spacecraft from Earth, has reached a new milestone in its quest to leave the Solar System. Now 17.4bn km (10.8bn miles) from home, the veteran probe has detected a distinct change in the flow of particles that surround it. These particles, which emanate from the Sun, are no longer travelling outwards but are moving sideways. Read more
Ed Stone, project scientist for NASA's Voyager mission, remembers the first time he saw the kinks in one of Saturn's narrowest rings. It was the day the Voyager 1 spacecraft made its closest approach to the giant ringed planet, 30 years ago. Scientists were gathering in front of television monitors and in one another's offices every day during this heady period to pore over the bewildering images and other data streaming down to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Read more
Voyager 1 will reach the 12,000-day milestone on July 13, 2010 after travelling more than 22 billion kilometres. Voyager 1 is currently more than 17 billion kilometres from the sun.
Douglas Vakoch, director of interstellar message composition at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, says any future messages sent to ET should reflect the human race as it really is - warts and all.
Thirty years ago this summer, two spacecraft lifted off from Earth. Both carried a gift for any extra-terrestrial life that might be on the receiving end. Voyager 1 and its cousin, Voyager 2, carried rock-and-roll by Chuck Berry, jazz by Louis Armstrong, Bach, Beethoven, and other music from around the world. The 27 pieces were contained in a copper record, accompanied by a needle and playback instructions.