Voyager 1, launched on 5 September 1977, is the most distant object ever built by humans. After flying past Jupiter in 1979 and Saturn in 1980, it headed out of the solar system and crossed into interstellar space in August 2012. It still sends data with a transmitter about as powerful as a fridge light bulb; its signal, travelling at the speed of light, now takes almost a day to reach the Earth. Its distance from the Sun grows by about 17 km every second. Engineers switch off instruments one by one to save its dwindling power, so that Voyager can keep talking to us for as long as possible.
How far away is Voyager 1?
Computing…
About Voyager 1
- Agency
- NASA
- Launched
- 1977-09-05
- Status
- Active
Goals
Voyager 1 was launched to explore Jupiter and Saturn up close, studying their atmospheres, rings, magnetic fields and moons, including a close flyby of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Now the most distant human-made object, it measures particles, magnetic fields and plasma waves in interstellar space, outside the bubble created by the Sun. It also carries the Golden Record, a message from Earth.
Today
LECP instrument switched off on 2026-04-17; only the plasma wave instrument and magnetometer remain on. The same 'Big Bang' procedure tested on Voyager 2 is being applied; if it succeeds, LECP could be switched back on.
Questions and answers
Has Voyager 1 left the solar system?
It left the heliosphere, the bubble of the Sun’s wind, in 2012. The Sun’s gravity still reaches much farther, out to the Oort cloud, which Voyager will need tens of thousands of years to cross.
Is Voyager 1 still working?
Yes, with a few instruments left on; its power source, which turns the heat of decaying plutonium into electricity, weakens every year.
Where the numbers come from
Values refresh every second in your browser; the published data are checked every 10 minutes and updated several times a day.