Voyager 1

node · earth · Interstellar space, in the direction of the constellation Ophiuchus

The faster and more distant of the two Voyager probes, launched on 5 September 1977 — sixteen days after its twin — on a shorter trajectory that overtook Voyager 2 before Jupiter. It flew past Jupiter on 5 March 1979 and Saturn on 12 November 1980, and there its planetary career deliberately ended: mission planners chose a close pass at Titan over a continued tour, and the geometry of that flyby bent the spacecraft north out of the plane of the planets, putting every remaining target permanently out of reach. It crossed the termination shock in December 2004 and the heliopause on 25 August 2012 at 121.6 astronomical units, becoming the first human-made object in interstellar space. As of August 2026 it is roughly 170 AU from Earth and still transmitting; its plasma science instrument failed in 1980, its cosmic ray subsystem was switched off on 25 February 2025, and the magnetometer and plasma wave subsystem continue to return data. Not a place.