How NASA Engineers Are Keeping the Voyagers Alive

A reworking of the spacecraft’s power systems could extend the nearly 50-year-old Voyagers’ exploration of interstellar space into the early 2030s.

The top 3

  1. Most Distant Human-Made Objects: Voyager 1 is currently the most distant human-made object from Earth, traveling over 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) away in interstellar space as of April 2026.
  2. Longest Operating Spacecraft Mission: Launched in 1977, both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are NASA's longest-operating missions, having functioned for over 45 years and continuing to transmit data from interstellar space.
  3. First Spacecraft to Enter Interstellar Space: Voyager 1 became the first human-made object to enter interstellar space on August 25, 2012, followed by Voyager 2 on November 5, 2018.

Sources

Open the full topic