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 5:00 p.m. EST on February 17, 1998, the Voyager 1 spacecraft will become the spacecraft that has traveled farthest away from the Earth. For 25 years,
Pioneer 10 has been in the lead in this race.
When Voyager 1 becomes the most distant man-made object in space, it will be 6.5 billion kilometers from the Earth! It is nearing the edge of the solar system! 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 reach the heliopause by 2002.
You might also be interested in:

The rare arrangement of planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune in the 1980's made it possible for the Voyager spacecrafts to visit them over a 12 year span instead of the normal 30. They used gravity
...more
It was another exciting and frustrating year for the space science program. It seemed that every step forward led to one backwards. Either way, NASA led the way to a great century of discovery. Unfortunately,
...more
The Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on October 29th at 2:19 p.m. EST. The weather was great as Discovery took 8 1/2 minutes to reach orbit. This was the United States' 123rd
...more
A moon was discovered orbiting the asteroid, Eugenia. This is only the second time in history that a satellite has been seen circling an asteroid. A special mirror allowed scientists to find the moon
...more
Will Russia ever put the service module for the International Space Station in space? NASA officials want an answer from the Russian government. The necessary service module is currently waiting to be
...more
A coronal mass ejection (CME) happened on the Sun early last month. The material that was thrown out from this explosion passed the ACE spacecraft. The SWICS instrument on ACE has produced a new and very
...more
J.S. Maini of the Canadian Forest Service called forests the "heart and lungs of the world." This is because forests filter air and water pollution, absorb carbon dioxide, release oxygen, and maintain
...more