Launch of Voyager 1

On 5 September 1977, Voyager 1 launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The spacecraft took off 16 days after its twin, Voyager 2. The primary mission of Voyager 1 was to explore Jupiter and Saturn, where it took some 32 000 pictures and made a series of discoveries, including active volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon Io and complex structures in Saturn’s rings. Although it completed that mission in 1989, it has continued to explore the outer realm of the solar system. To date, Voyager 1 has traveled more than 139 AU (20 billion km), the farthest from Earth of any spacecraft. In August 2012 the probe reached interstellar space , where it continues to gather data and send it to Earth via the Deep Space Network . Voyager 2 is expected to join it in interstellar space within the next few years, about the time that scientists will need to start turning off the science instruments onboard due to diminishing electrical power. (Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/KSC)

Date in History: 5 September 1977