Voyager 2 passes Saturn and continues towards Uranus
With Titan already surveyed by Voyager 1, Voyager 2's Saturn pass could be shaped purely for onward travel. The encounter resolved the rings into thousands of ringlets and found structures — braids, spokes and shepherd moons — that existing ring dynamics did not predict. The gravity assist set the spacecraft on the four-and-a-half-year cruise to Uranus.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- Voyager 2 · mission · Interstellar space, on a southward trajectory out of the ecliptic plane · not located
- Saturn · celestial body · not located
- Gravity assist · process · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
NASA Voyager mission science pages — planetary encounter summaries
The encounter dates and principal findings at Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, including the Jovian ring, the resolved ring structure at Saturn, the tilted and offset Uranian magnetic field and the newly found moons at both ice giants. V55 verification basis: THE PAGES WERE NOT REACHED — science.nasa.gov is blocked by this session's egress proxy and the search budget was exhausted. Everything attributed here is standard mission record from general knowledge; a curator must confirm each encounter date and each count of newly discovered moons against NASA's own pages.
NASA Science / Jet Propulsion Laboratory · access attempted 2026-08 · Partly verified
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/ — mission science and planetary encounter pages
Recorded on Voyager 2
- Flandro identifies a four-planet gravity-assist opportunity
- The full Grand Tour is cancelled and rebuilt as a two-spacecraft mission
- Voyager 2 launches
- Voyager 1 closest approach to Jupiter
- Voyager 2 closest approach to Jupiter
- Pioneer 11 passes Saturn — the first spacecraft to reach it
- 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
- Cassini enters orbit around Saturn
- Voyager 2 crosses the termination shock at about 84 AU
- Cassini’s Grand Finale — flown into Saturn to end the mission
- Voyager 2 crosses the heliopause at 119 AU
- Voyager 2's low-energy charged particle instrument is switched off
- 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 2 crosses the heliopause at 119 AU · 2018-11-05
- Cassini’s Grand Finale — flown into Saturn to end the mission · 2017-09-15
- Voyager 2 crosses the termination shock at about 84 AU · 2007-08-30
- Cassini enters orbit around Saturn · 2004-07-01
- Voyager 2 passes Neptune and Triton, ending the planetary programme · 1989-08-25
- Voyager 2 reaches Uranus — the only close encounter ever made · 1986-01-24