Voyager mission artwork depicting the Voyager spacecraft's trajectory...made in 1977.
Click on image for full size
Courtesy of NASA
Voyager to Take the Lead!
News story originally written on February 16, 1998
At approximately 5:10 p.m. EST on February 17, 1998, the Voyager 1 spacecraft will become the spacecraft that has traveled farthest away from the planet Earth. For 25 years,
Pioneer 10 has been in the lead in this race. It's not that the Voyager will overtake the Pioneer in a neck-and-neck race. The Pioneer spacecraft is headed in the opposite direction from the Sun.
When Voyager 1 becomes the most distant man-made object in space, it will be 6.5 billion kilometers from the Earth. At this distance the Sun shines 1/5,000th as bright as it does here on Earth.
Voyager 1 is still exploring the outer solar system. The spacecraft passed Pluto and is still traveling outward. Scientists are hoping that the spacecraft will reach the heliopause, where the Sun's influence stops. This would truly be where no spacecraft has gone before!
The Voyager spacecraft is expected to near the heliopause by 2002.
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