Voyager One was launched 40 years ago on September 5, 1977. It is the only probe ever to leave our solar system
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Forty years ago NASA launched what has become its most successful deep space mission so far.
The Voyager programme’s aim was to explore the solar system and the mysteries of space and it’s still doing it.
Voyager 1 lifted off on September 5, 1977, 16 days after its slower twin Voyager two.
Four decades later and Voyager 1 is almost 21 billion kilometers away from us in interstellar space. It is the farthest human-made object from Earth. The slightly slower Voyager 2 is currently at the outermost edge of our solar system.
Voyager One’s mission has included flybys of Jupiter and Saturn with the spacecraft able to receive routine commands and return data.
But both space probe carry a gold-plated audio-visual disc in the event it is ever found by other intelligent life forms. It includes examples of music and culture and its compilers say its a gift from humanity to the cosmos.
This week on “Think About This!”: one of the most amazing spacecrafts ever built. https://t.co/QHQB1s5wG2#Voyager40 #Space #SciComm
— Colin G. West (@ColinGWest) September 4, 2017