The full Grand Tour is cancelled and rebuilt as a two-spacecraft mission
The ambitious multi-spacecraft Grand Tour programme studied at the start of the 1970s, using a new self-repairing spacecraft design, was cancelled on cost grounds. What survived was a smaller, approved mission to Jupiter and Saturn only, using two spacecraft derived from the Mariner line; it was renamed Voyager shortly before launch. The capability to continue to Uranus and Neptune was not formally part of the approved mission, and Voyager 2's trajectory was designed to preserve the option without depending on it.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- Voyager 1 · mission · Interstellar space, in the direction of the constellation Ophiuchus · not located
- Voyager 2 · mission · Interstellar space, on a southward trajectory out of the ecliptic plane · not located
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory · organisation · United States
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive master catalogue entries for Voyager 1 and Voyager 2
The canonical mission record for both spacecraft: launch dates of 20 August 1977 (Voyager 2) and 5 September 1977 (Voyager 1), the Titan IIIE-Centaur launch vehicle, Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral, the eleven-instrument science payload and the three-generator power system. V55 verification basis: THE CATALOGUE WAS NOT REACHED. nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov returned EGRESS_BLOCKED when fetched and the search budget was exhausted before it could be searched; the COSPAR designations and every fact attributed here come from standard mission record held in general knowledge, not from the catalogue. This record names where a curator should check, not what was checked.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, NSSDCA · catalogue records, access attempted 2026-08 · Partly verified
NSSDCA master catalogue, Voyager 1 (COSPAR 1977-084A) and Voyager 2 (COSPAR 1977-076A), https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1977-084A
Recorded on Voyager 1
- The full Grand Tour is cancelled and rebuilt as a two-spacecraft mission
- Voyager 2 launches
- Voyager 1 launches
- Voyager 1 closest approach to Jupiter
- Active volcanism found on Io
- Voyager 2 closest approach to Jupiter
- Voyager 1 passes Saturn and Titan, and leaves the plane of the planets
- Voyager 2 passes Saturn and continues towards Uranus
- Voyager 2 reaches Uranus — the only close encounter ever made
- Voyager 2 passes Neptune and Triton, ending the planetary programme
- Voyager 1 photographs the solar system from outside it
- Voyager 1 crosses the termination shock at about 94 AU
- Voyager 2 crosses the termination shock at about 84 AU
- Voyager 1 crosses the heliopause at 121.6 AU
- The 2012 crossing is confirmed from plasma oscillations
- Voyager 2 crosses the heliopause at 119 AU
- Voyager 1's cosmic ray subsystem is switched off
- Voyager 2's low-energy charged particle instrument is switched off
- Voyager 1's low-energy charged particle instrument due for shutdown
- The "Big Bang" power manoeuvre on Voyager 2
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- The "Big Bang" power manoeuvre on Voyager 2 · 2026-07-09
- Voyager 2's low-energy charged particle instrument is switched off · 2025-03-24
- Voyager 1's cosmic ray subsystem is switched off · 2025-02-25
- Voyager 1's low-energy charged particle instrument due for shutdown · 2026 (announced plan)
- Voyager 1 reaches one light-day from Earth · 2026-11-18 02:16 PST (computed)
- Voyager 2 crosses the heliopause at 119 AU · 2018-11-05
- The 2012 crossing is confirmed from plasma oscillations · 2013-09-12
- Voyager 1 crosses the heliopause at 121.6 AU · 2012-08-25