Voyagers Timeline 1977 The Mariner Jupiter/Saturn 1977 mission is renamed Voyager Aug. 20 Voyager 2 spacecraft launched from Kennedy Space Flight Center, Florida Sept. 5 Voyager 1 spacecraft launched from Kennedy Space Flight Center, Florida



Voyager 1 sends the first spacecraft photo of Earth and the Moon 1979 Mar. 5 Voyager 1 flies by Jupiter in its closest approach to that planet July 9 Voyager 2 makes its closest fly-by of Jupiter 1980 Nov. 12 Voyager 1 flies by the planet Saturn



With no more planet fly-bys in its plan, Voyager 1 begins its trip out of the Solar System 1981 Aug. 25 Voyager 2 flies by Saturn 1982 NASA's Deep Space Network upgrades two 85-ft. antennas to 112-ft. diameter to be better able to receive weak radio signals from the Voyager spacecraft 1986 Jan. 24 Voyager 2 completes the first-ever spacecraft encounter with the planet Uranus



NASA's Deep Space Network expands 210-ft. antennas to 230-ft. diameter for improved reception of weak signals from the very distant Voyager spacecraft 1987 Voyager 2 observes the faraway stellar explosion known as Supernova 1987A 1988 Voyager 2 sends to Earth the first color images of the planet Neptune 1989 Aug. 25 Voyager 2 is the first spacecraft to observe Neptune



With no more planet fly-bys in its plan, Voyager 2 begins its trip out of the Solar System, traveling below the ecliptic plane During their "Grand Tour" of the planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, the Voyagers sent home nearly 80 thousand images and more than 5 trillion bits of data. 1990 Jan. 1 NASA starts the Voyager Interstellar Mission Feb. 14 The Voyager 1 cameras had been dormant since that spacecraft had left the vicinity of Saturn. NASA turned the cameras on to look back where the two spacecraft had come from and transmit its last Images – a portrait of the Solar System 1997 Spacecraft electrical systems generated 470 watts of power at launch. Now, the power generated by Voyager 1 has dropped to 334 watts and Voyager 2 to 336 watts. 1998 Feb. 17 Voyager 1 passed Pioneer 10 to become the most distant human-made object in space. 2002 The 25-year-old Voyager 1 was more than 7.8 billion miles away from Earth. Radio signals required 12 hours to reach the probe. NASA sent commands to activate a spare sun sensor and star tracker to help the craft locate its position. Aug. 1 Voyager 1 reported that high-velocity electrically-charged particles – electrons and ions – around the spacecraft increased 100 times from Aug. 1 to Feb. 5, 2003. The solar wind speed appeared to slow down. It wasn't clear whether the probe had crossed the Solar System "termination shock." 2004 Apr. 15± Voyager 2 detected a shock wave from October 2003 solar storms. Powerful flares had hurled billion-ton clouds of gas across the Solar System. Voyager 2 measured its speed, composition, temperature and magnetism. 2005 Jan. 5 It has been 10,000 days since Voyager 2's launch. The probe is nearly 7 billion miles (11 billion kilometers, 75 AU) away from Earth. It is heading in a northerly direction out of the Solar System. Jan. 21 It has been 10,000 days since Voyager 1's launch. The spacecraft is nearly 9 billion miles (14 billion kilometers, 94 AU) from Earth in a dark, cold, vacant neighborhood at the very edge of our Solar System. Voyager 1 holds the record as the explorer from Earth that has traveled farthest from home. It is heading in a southerly direction out of the Solar System. Voyagers 1 and 2 still are returning valuable science data. Each probe's cosmic ray detector, magnetometer, plasma wave detector and low-energy charged particle detector are operational. The ultraviolet spectrometer on Voyager 1 and the plasma science instrument on Voyager 2 continue to send home data. Since the beginning of the interstellar part of their mission in 1990, the two deep space probes have returned an additional 65 billion bits of data. 2020± The Voyagers have sufficient electrical power and thruster fuel to operate at least until 2020 when Voyager 1 will be 12.4 billion miles from the Sun and Voyager 2 will be 10.5 billion miles. 40,000± Voyager 1 will float by within 1.6 light years (9.3 trillion miles) of a star known as AC+79 3888 in the constellation Camelopardalis. 296,000± Voyager 2 will sail within 4.3 light years (25 trillion miles) of Sirius, which today is the brightest star in Earth's sky. SOURCES: NASA JPL, STO