Voyager 2 launches
Voyager 2 lifted off from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral on a Titan IIIE-Centaur, sixteen days before its twin, on the slower trajectory that kept the option of Uranus and Neptune open. The numbering is counter-intuitive for exactly this reason: the spacecraft launched second was placed on the faster path and overtook this one before Jupiter.
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
- Launch Complex 41, Cape Canaveral · launch site · United States
- Titan IIIE-Centaur · launch vehicle · United States · not located
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 2
- The full Grand Tour is cancelled and rebuilt as a two-spacecraft mission
- Voyager 2 launches
- Voyager 1 launches
- Voyager 2 closest approach to Jupiter
- 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 2 crosses the termination shock at about 84 AU
- 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
- Voyager 2 crosses the termination shock at about 84 AU · 2007-08-30
- 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
- Voyager 2 passes Saturn and continues towards Uranus · 1981-08-25
- Voyager 2 closest approach to Jupiter · 1979-07-09