Mission Statistics
~24 billion
KM FROM EARTH
≈ 15 billion MILES
Roughly 160 astronomical units, or 160 times the distance from Earth to the Sun.
160
AU
Distance in astronomical units. One AU = 93 million miles. At this distance, sunlight takes over 22 hours to reach Voyager 1.
38,000
MPH
Speed relative to the Sun. Approximately 17 km/s — fast enough to travel from New York to Los Angeles in under 5 minutes.
22+
HOURS SIGNAL TIME
Radio signals from Voyager 1 travel at the speed of light, yet still take over 22 hours to reach Earth.
48
YEARS IN SPACE
Launched September 5, 1977, Voyager 1 has been traveling for nearly five decades — far exceeding its planned 5-year mission.
$250M
ORIGINAL COST
The entire Voyager program — both spacecraft, launch, and decades of operations — cost approximately $250 million in 1970s dollars.
22
WATTS POWER
Voyager 1 now generates only about 22 watts of usable power from its RTGs — less than a standard light bulb — yet still communicates with Earth.
3.7B
MILES (PALE BLUE DOT)
When Voyager 1 photographed Earth for the last time in 1990, it was already 3.7 billion miles away.
11
INSTRUMENTS
Voyager 1 carried 11 science instruments at launch. Most have been shut down to save power; only 4 remain active.
722
KG (SPACECRAFT MASS)
Voyager 1 weighs 722 kilograms (1,592 lbs) — lighter than a compact car — yet contains technology that has outlasted most of the engineers who built it.
40,000
YEARS
Time until nearest star. Voyager 1 will not pass near another star for approximately 40,000 years, when it approaches AC+79 3888.
1B+
YEARS (GOLDEN RECORD)
The gold-plated copper disk is expected to remain intact for over a billion years in the cold vacuum of interstellar space.
DISTANCES IN PERSPECTIVE
How far away is Voyager 1 really? Compare to other celestial distances using a logarithmic scale.
Earth to Moon
Earth to Sun (1 AU)
Earth to Jupiter
Earth to Saturn
Earth to Pluto
Voyager 1 Today