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30 Years Ago -- Voyager 2's Historic Neptune Flyby

Posted by Guy Pirro 10/19/2019 08:59AM

30 Years Ago -- Voyager 2's Historic Neptune Flyby

Thirty years ago, on August 25, 1989, NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft made a close flyby of Neptune, giving humanity its first close-up look at our Solar System's eighth planet and marking the end of the Voyager mission's Grand Tour of the Solar System's four giant planets - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. But that historic first was also a last -- No other spacecraft has visited Neptune since. Voyager 2 launched on August 20, 1977, about two weeks before its twin spacecraft, Voyager 1. The two spacecraft are today the most distant human-made objects, having recently passed through the Heliosphere – a giant bubble that surrounds the Solar System. The original goal of the two Voyager spacecraft was to just explore Jupiter and Saturn. However, as part of a mission extension, Voyager 2 also flew by Uranus in 1986 and Neptune in 1989, taking advantage of a once in a 176 year alignment of the planets that enabled it to take a grand tour of the outer planets. Today, Voyager 2 is about 18.2 billion kilometers, or 11.3 billion miles, from Earth. Voyager 1 is about 22.0 billion kilometers (13.7 billion miles) away from Earth. Judging by their unmatched track record, it seems likely that Voyager 2 and its twin, Voyager 1, will continue to be humanity's eyes and ears into the realm of the stars for years to come. As the Space Age hits the 62-year mark, there is little doubt -- The Voyagers are going the distance.


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