Voyager 1 Spacecraft

Live Telemetry Feed

Humanity's Farthest Reach

Launched September 5, 1977 | Mission: Active
Now traveling through interstellar space

Voyager 1 Spacecraft — Public Domain Rendering

◆ NASA Voyager Program — Mission Elapsed: -- ◆ Milestone — Craft to reach 1 Light-Day from Earth in: --

■ Current Distance from Earth

—MI

Data sourced from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Caltech) Horizons System

Distance — Kilometers

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kilometers from Earth

Astronomical Units

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1 AU = 93 million miles

Light-Travel Time

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light takes to reach Earth from craft

Distance Traveled Today

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miles since 00:00 UTC · resets midnight

Current Speed

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speed slowly decreasing — solar gravity still acts at this distance

Signal Delay — 1-Way

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radio signal travel time to Earth

vs. Solar Escape Velocity

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× local escape velocity

Time Dilation

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sec Voyager clock lags Earth

RTG Power Output

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0 W (depleted) · — · 470 W at launch

Nearest Star (excl. Sun)

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AC+79 3888 — trillion km remaining

Sun Apparent Magnitude

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from Voyager · full moon ≈ −12.7

Pu‑238 Nuclear Fuel

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0% (depleted) half-life: 87.7 yr 100% at launch

■ Mission Milestones

◆ Key Events in the Mission

✓ Sept 5, 1977 Launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida

✓ March 5, 1979 Jupiter flyby — closest approach at 349,000 km

✓ Nov 12, 1980 Saturn flyby — closest approach, Titan study

✓ Feb 14, 1990 "Pale Blue Dot" photograph of Earth taken at 6 billion km

✓ Feb 17, 1998 Overtook Pioneer 10 as most distant human-made object

✓ Aug 25, 2012 Entered interstellar space — crossed the heliopause

▶ Now Deep interstellar space — the farthest object ever built by man

○ Nov 2026 Projected to reach 1 light-day from Earth

○ Year ~40,000 Will pass within 1.7 light-years of star AC+79 3888

Deep Tracking Data Available

Full ephemeris • Sky charts • 3D orbit visualization • Real-time coordinates

LIVE TRACKING → TheSkyLive.com

About Voyager 1

Voyager 1 is the most distant human-made object in existence. Launched by NASA on September 5, 1977, it was originally designed for a five-year mission to study Jupiter and Saturn. Nearly five decades later, it is still operating — now traveling through interstellar space at roughly 17 kilometers per second, more than 25 billion kilometers from Earth. No spacecraft in history has ever ventured this far.

On August 25, 2012, Voyager 1 crossed the heliopause — the boundary where the Sun's solar wind gives way to the interstellar medium — becoming the first spacecraft to enter interstellar space. Its twin, Voyager 2, followed in November 2018. Together they represent humanity's only direct sampling of the environment beyond our solar system.

The spacecraft carries a golden phonograph record — known as the Golden Record — containing sounds, music, and images representing life on Earth, intended as a message to any civilization that might one day encounter it. In 2023, Voyager 1 made global headlines when it began transmitting garbled data due to a failing memory chip. NASA engineers devised a remarkable software fix transmitted across 24 billion kilometers of space, restoring full communications in April 2024.

FAQ → Mission Timeline → By the Numbers → Golden Record → Photos → About → NASA