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Interstellar Mission

Voyager 2

The Voyager 2 spacecraft, which has been in operation since 1977 and is the only spacecraft to have ever visited Uranus and Neptune, has made its way to interstellar space, where its twin spacecraft, Voyager 1, has resided since August 2012.

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Voyager 2 Foreground

Mission Statistics

Launch Date

Aug. 20, 1977

Type

Flyby Spacecraft

Target

Interstellar Space

Status

Current

About the mission

The Voyager 2 spacecraft, which has been in operation since 1977 and is the only spacecraft to have ever visited Uranus and Neptune, has made its way to interstellar space, where its twin spacecraft, Voyager 1, has resided since August 2012. During its travels through the outer solar system, Voyager 2 visited all four gas giant planets, and also discovered and photographed many of the planets' moons.

The spacecraft's flyby of Neptune in 1989 set it on a course below the elliptic plane that eventually took it to interstellar space on November 5, 2018. In 1998, engineers switched off the spacecraft's nonessential instruments to conserve power. Data from at least some of the six instruments still in operation should be received until at least 2025.

Instruments

  • Imaging system
  • Infrared interferometer spectrometer
  • Ultraviolet spectrometer
  • Triaxial fluxgate magnetometer
  • Plasma spectrometer
  • Low-energy charged particles detectors
  • Cosmic Ray System (CRS)
  • Photopolarimeter System (PPS)
  • Plasma Wave System (PWS)

Mission Highlights

Nov. 5, 2018

November 5, 2018 - Voyager 2 Reaches Interstellar Space
Interstellar target graphic

Interactive 3D model of Voyager 2.View the full interactive experience at Eyes on the Solar System.

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› Mission Website
› Fact Sheet
› JPL History
› Voyager 2 Information on Solar System Exploration
› NASA Mission Page
› Voyager 2 Information on National Space Science Data Center

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