Extended MissionNASA JPL
Voyager 1 & 2 Interstellar Mission
Humankind's most distant emissaries journeying into the pristine interstellar medium.
Voyager 1 Distance24.4+ Billion km (163.2 AU)
Light Travel Time (One Way)22 Hours 38 Minutes
Speed relative to Sun17.0 km/s (38,000 mph)
Golden Record Lifetime> 1 Billion Years in vacuum
The Interstellar Crossing & Heliopause Physics
Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 and 2 transformed our understanding of the outer solar system before crossing the heliopause—the magnetic boundary where the solar wind gives way to the interstellar interstellar gas of the Milky Way.
Interstellar Scientific Objectives
Perform close reconnaissance of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and 48 of their diverse moons.
Determine the boundary and magnetic geometry of the solar heliosphere and interstellar magnetic fields.
Measure pristine Galactic Cosmic Ray spectra unshielded by the Sun's magnetic heliospheric bubble.
Carry the Golden Record—a time capsule of Earth's sounds, languages, music, and scientific diagrams—across deep galactic time.
Surviving Instruments
Active Interstellar Payloads
Magnetometer (MAG)
Interstellar magnetic field vector and magnitude measurements
Manufacturer: NASA Goddard
Cosmic Ray System (CRS)
High-energy interstellar nuclei and galactic proton detection
Manufacturer: Caltech
Low-Energy Charged Particle (LECP)
Plasma drift velocity and particle energy spectrum analysis
Manufacturer: JHU APL
Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTG)
Plutonium-238 decay providing power over 48+ continuous years
Manufacturer: US DOE
Interstellar Coordinates
Current Heliocentric Distance:> 163 AU
One-way Radio Latency:22.6 Hours
Operating Lifespan:48+ Years Active