Voyager 1: Interesting Facts About Earth’s Farthest Spacecraft.

illustration by Andy McNally

Voyager 1 is a space probe launched by NASA on September 5, 1977. Oddly, Voyager 2, a twin spacecraft, was launched 16 days earlier. Recently, Voyager 1 has been in the news due to NASA having communication issues with the aging spacecraft. Since November 2023, NASA has said that Voyager 1 has been sending a steady radio signal to Earth, but the signal does not contain usable data. On March 13, 2024, NASA reported that Voyager 1 had responded positively to a “poke” command sent to the spacecraft. NASA remains optimistic that the issues will be resolved soon.

sketchnote by Andy McNally

Interesting Facts about Voyager 1

Because Voyager 1 is more than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth, it takes 22.5 hours for a radio signal to reach the spacecraft and another 22.5 hours for the probe’s response to reach antennas on the ground.

Voyager 1 has been exploring space for over 45 years. Originally, it conducted flybys of Jupiter, Saturn, and Saturn’s largest moon, Titan.