Voyager 2
 Model of the Voyager spacecraft design | |
| Mission type | Planetary exploration |
|---|---|
| Operator | NASA / JPL[1] |
| COSPAR ID | 1977-076A[2] |
| SATCAT no. | 10271[3] |
| Website | voyager |
| Mission duration | 44 years and 9 months elapsed Planetary mission: 12 years, 1 month, 12 days Interstellar mission: 32 years, 7 months and 18 days elapsed (continuing) |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Manufacturer | Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
| Launch mass | 825.5 kilograms (1,820 lb) |
| Power | 470 watts (at launch) |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | August 20, 1977, 14:29:00 UTC |
| Rocket | Titan IIIE |
| Launch site | Cape Canaveral LC-41 |
| Flyby of Jupiter | |
| Closest approach | July 9, 1979, 22:29:00 UTC |
| Distance | 570,000 kilometers (350,000 mi) |
| Flyby of Saturn | |
| Closest approach | August 26, 1981, 03:24:05 UTC |
| Distance | 101,000 km (63,000 mi) |
| Flyby of Uranus | |
| Closest approach | January 24, 1986, 17:59:47 UTC |
| Distance | 81,500 km (50,600 mi) |
| Flyby of Neptune | |
| Closest approach | August 25, 1989, 03:56:36 UTC |
| Distance | 4,951 km (3,076 mi) |
Voyager 2 is a space probe used by NASA to explore Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. It's the only spacecraft that has come near to Uranus and Neptune. Because of this, a majority of pictures we see of these two ice planets came from this spacecraft. It was identical in form to its sister space probe, Voyager 1. The space probe is currently moving away from the solar system, and is heading out into interstellar space.
Voyager 2 was launched on August 20, 1977.
Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 include the Voyager Golden Record, which is a recording of sounds and images of life on Earth. It was designed by a team headed by Carl Sagan to communicate with extraterrestrial life.
Voyager 2 is the second spacecraft, which was able to exit from the solar system and enter into the interstellar space, 6 years after Voyager 1. In 2018, NASA announced that Voyager 2 had reached the heliopause on 5 November of that year.[4] Voyager 2 is very soon going to be the 2-nd farthest spacecraft from the Earth, when it'll pass one of 5 space probes, which is going to exit from the solar system, which is Pioneer 10. Pioneer 10 was a NASA space probe which was the first spacecraft to exit the outer solar system on June 13, 1983, when it passed the Neptune's orbit. Pioneer 10 is going to be passed by Voyager 2 around April 2023 at around 12.4 billion miles (133.5 AU) from the Sun, while it was passed by Voyager 1 on February 17, 1998 at 6.5 billion miles (70 AU) from the Sun.
Related pages[change | change source]
References[change | change source]
- ↑ "VOYAGER:Mission Information". NASA. 1989. Archived from the original on February 20, 2017. Retrieved January 2, 2011.
- ↑ "Voyager 2". US National Space Science Data Center. Archived from the original on March 20, 2009. Retrieved August 25, 2013.
- ↑ "VOYAGER 2". N2YO. Retrieved August 25, 2013.
- ↑ "NASA's Voyager 2 Probe Enters Interstellar Space". NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 10 December 2018. Archived from the original on 14 December 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
Other websites[change | change source]
- NASA Voyager website
- Voyager Spacecraft Lifetime
- Voyager 2 Mission Profile Archived 2007-08-01 at the Wayback Machine by NASA's Solar System Exploration
- Spacecraft Escaping the Solar System Archived 2007-04-27 at the Wayback Machine - current positions and diagrams
- Mission state
- VOYAGER RECENT 6-HOUR HISTORY Archived 2007-06-18 at the Wayback Machine
- Voyager 2 Detects Odd Shape of Solar System's Edge 23 May 2006
