THIS WEEK, 45 YEARS AGO, VOYAGER 1 BEGAN ITS JOURNEY INTO HISTORY- WEEKS AFTER VOYAGER 2
THIS WEEK, 45 YEARS AGO, VOYAGER 1 BEGAN ITS JOURNEY INTO HISTORY- WEEKS AFTER VOYAGER 2
NASA'S ICONIC VOYAGER 1 SPACE PROBE BLAST OFF FROM CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE BASE ON SEPTEMBER 5, 1977.
STUDY AND EXPLORE THE OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM AND POINTS BEYOND. TODAY, AT ABOUT 14.6 BILLION MILES FROM THE EARTH
IT IS THE MOST DISTANT SPACECRAFT FROM EARTH AND CONTINUES TO SPEECH IN THE DIRECTION OF THE CONSTELLATION OPHIUCHUS AT ABOUT 38,000 MPH.
Voyager 1 was designed as part of NASA's Grand Tour of the Solar System, which aimed to visit all of the outer planets, including Pluto at the time
Pioneer 10 was launched to Jupiter, followed by Pioneer 11 to Jupiter and Saturn, kicking off the Grand Tour
Because of the exorbitant costs of each of these one-of-a-kind spacecraft, NASA abandoned the Grand Tour in favor of Mariner Jupiter-Saturn, later renamed Voyager
"Back then, launching two spacecraft (Voyager 1 and Voyager 2) was more of a risk-mitigation strategy because if one failed, you still had a mission," says a NASA spokesperson
According to William Kurth, a research scientist at the University of Lowa's Department of Physics and a co-investigator on the Voyager Programme