This is an image of the Voyager spacecraft.
Click on image for full size
NASA/JPL
Happy Birthday to Voyager!
News story originally written on August 19, 2002
NASA's Voyager mission is 25 years old! Both spacecrafts Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are still traveling through space sending signals back to scientists on Earth.
The Voyager spacecrafts have discovered some amazing things about our solar system. They found volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io, big storms on Jupiter, kinks and spokes on Saturn's rings, fast winds on Neptune, and geysers on Neptune's moon Triton, just to name a few!
Scientists hope that both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 will still work when they reach the interstellar space outside our solar system. Voyager 1 is traveling very fast but it will still take a many years to get there. Scientists hope that the spacecraft will still be working by the time is gets to interstellar space so we can learn more about this far-away place.
Even if it stops working before it reaches interstellar space, Voyager 1 will be on an important mission. The spacecraft will carry sounds and pictures from Earth as it travels the Universe. Who knows who (or what) might find our message!
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