Voyager 1 currently is the farthest human-made object, traveling at a distance from the sun of about 15.5 billion kilometers (9.7 billion miles). Both Voyagers remain healthy and are returning scientific data 30 years after their launches. They also showed waves and fine structure in Saturn's icy rings from the tugs of nearby moons.įor the past 18 years, the twin Voyagers have been probing the sun's outer heliosphere and its boundary with interstellar space. The spacecraft revealed Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere, which includes dozens of interacting hurricane-like storm systems, and erupting volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io.
The Voyagers returned never-before-seen images and scientific data, making fundamental discoveries about the outer planets and their moons. "It's a testament to Voyager's designers, builders and operators that both spacecraft continue to deliver important findings more than 25 years after their primary mission to Jupiter and Saturn concluded."ĭuring their first dozen years of flight, the Voyagers made detailed explorations of Jupiter, Saturn, and their moons, and conducted the first explorations of Uranus and Neptune. It opened our eyes to the scientific richness of the outer solar system, and it has pioneered the deepest exploration of the sun's domain ever conducted," said Alan Stern, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. "The Voyager mission is a legend in the annals of space exploration. Image right: Artist concept of the two Voyager spacecraft as they approach interstellar space. They continue to return information from distances more than three times farther away than Pluto. 20, 1977, and Voyager 1 launched on Sept. Their ongoing odysseys mark an unprecedented and historic accomplishment. NASA's two venerable Voyager spacecraft are celebrating three decades of flight as they head toward interstellar space. STS-118 will be the first flight since 2002 for Endeavour, which has undergone extensive modifications, including the addition of safety upgrades already added to orbiters Discovery and Atlantis. The mission is the 22nd flight to the International Space Station and will mark the first flight of Mission Specialist Barbara Morgan, the teacher-turned-astronaut whose association with NASA began more than 20 years ago. During the mission, Endeavour will carry into orbit the S5 truss, SPACEHAB module and external stowage platform 3. Seen below the orbiter's wings are the tail masts, which provide several umbilical connections to the orbiter, including a liquid-oxygen line through one and a liquid-hydrogen line through another.Įndeavour is scheduled to launch on mission STS-118 on Aug. The components of the shuttle are, first, the orbiter and then the solid rocket boosters flanking the external tank behind it. First motion out of the Vehicle Assembly Building was at 8:10 p.m. After a nearly 7-hour trip, Space Shuttle Endeavour, atop the mobile launcher platform, is hard down on Launch Pad 39A.
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