ABOUT VOYAGER PROGRAM

The Voyager program is an American scientific program that employs two robotic probes, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, launched in 1977 to take advantage of a favorable alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Although their original mission was to study only the planetary systems of Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager 2 continued on to Uranus and Neptune. The Voyagers now explore the outer boundary of the heliosphere in interstellar space; their mission has been extended three times and they continue to transmit useful scientific data. Neither Uranus nor Neptune has had a close-up picture taken by a probe other than Voyager 2.

On 25 August 2012, data from Voyager 1 indicated that it had become the first man-made object to enter interstellar space, traveling "further than anyone, or anything, in history". As of 2013, Voyager 1 was moving with a velocity of 17 kilometers per second (11 mi/s) relative to the Sun.

On 5 November 2019, data from Voyager 2 indicated that it also had entered interstellar space. On 4 November 2019, scientists reported that, on 5 November 2018, the Voyager 2 probe had officially reached the interstellar medium (ISM), a region of outer space beyond the influence of the Solar System, and has now joined the Voyager 1 probe which had reached the ISM earlier in 2012.

Data and photographs collected by the Voyagers' cameras, magnetometers and other instruments, revealed unknown details about each of the four giant planets and their moons. Close-up images from the spacecraft charted Jupiter's complex cloud forms, winds and storm systems and discovered volcanic activity on its moon Io. Saturn's rings were found to have enigmatic braids, kinks and spokes and to be accompanied by myriad "ringlets". At Uranus, Voyager 2 discovered a substantial magnetic field around the planet and ten more moons. Its flyby of Neptune uncovered three rings and six hitherto unknown moons, a planetary magnetic field and complex, widely distributed auroras. Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have visited the two ice giants. In August 2018, NASA confirmed, based on results by the New Horizons spacecraft, of a "hydrogen wall" at the outer edges of the Solar System that was first detected in 1992 by the two Voyager spacecraft.

"Voyager did things no one predicted, found scenes no one expected, and promises to outlive its inventors," wrote author Stephen J. Pyne. "Like a great painting or an abiding institution, it has acquired an existence of its own, a destiny beyond the grasp of its handlers."

The Voyager spacecraft were built at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which also financed their launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida, their tracking and everything else concerning the probes.

The cost of the original program was $865 million, with the later-added Voyager Interstellar Mission costing an extra $30 million.

In July 2019, a new plan to better manage the two Voyager space probes was implemented.