The Voyager 1 Story: Still operating 44 years later.
Voyager 1 is a space probe launched by NASA in 1977 with the sole purpose of studying the outer planets of our solar system. In a span of five years between 1979 and 1982, the space probe successfully visited Jupiter, Saturn, and Titan (Saturn’s largest moon) giving humanity the rawest, closest, and never-seen-before details of the so-called gas giants in our solar system. Although she was originally built to last only five years, Voyager 1 has outlived her life span 8 times over becoming one of humanity’s most resilient space-probes ever.
In 1998, NASA announced Voyager 1 was the furthest human-made object from Earth ever. In 2012, Voyager 1 set up another record as the first man-made object to “leave” the solar system as we know it and enter interstellar space. Today, 44+ years after its launch, Voyager 1 is still in operation and communicates regularly with NASA’s Deep Space Network. Although NASA is optimistic that Voyager 1 could remain operational until 2025, the truth is Voyager 1 could go “radio silent” any moment now.
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