{"id":65390,"date":"2026-09-05T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/?guid=293305e9a1e0cad6540fb248e3598fd9"},"modified":"2026-09-05T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T13:00:00","slug":"on-this-day-in-space-sept-5-1977-nasa-launches-voyager-1-on-epic-journey-across-the-solar-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/2026\/09\/05\/on-this-day-in-space-sept-5-1977-nasa-launches-voyager-1-on-epic-journey-across-the-solar-system\/","title":{"rendered":"On this day in space! Sept. 5, 1977: NASA launches Voyager 1 on epic journey across the solar system"},"content":{"rendered":"\n                            \n                            <article>\n                                <iframe src=\"https:\/\/content.jwplatform.com\/players\/xm8OsJ06.html\" id=\"xm8OsJ06\" title=\"OTD in Space - Sept. 5: Voyager 1 Launch\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"auto\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><p>On Sept. 5, 1977, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/17688-voyager-1.html\"><u>Voyager 1<\/u><\/a> began its epic journey through deep space with a glorious morning launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida.<\/p><p>Voyager 1 initially launched on a mission to explore the outer planets. After flying by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/7-jupiter-largest-planet-solar-system.html\"><u>Jupiter<\/u><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/48-saturn-the-solar-systems-major-ring-bearer.html\"><u>Saturn<\/u><\/a> in 1979 and 1980, the spacecraft took a sharp turn and started heading straight out of the solar system.<\/p><p>Voyager 1 became the f<a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/22784-voyager-1-spacecraft-interstellar-space-complete-coverage.html\"><u>irst spacecraft to reach interstellar space<\/u><\/a> in 2012, although scientists are still debating about exactly where that boundary lies.<\/p><p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/22783-voyager-1-interstellar-space-star-flyby.html\">spacecraft's next big encounter<\/a> will take place in about 40,000 years, when it will fly by another star system. And just in case it comes across any intelligent life out in the universe, it's carrying a golden record with sights, sounds and greetings from planet Earth.<\/p><h2 id=\"why-it-mattered\">Why it mattered<\/h2><figure class=\"van-image-figure  inline-layout\" data-bordeaux-image-check ><div class='image-full-width-wrapper'><div class='image-widthsetter' style=\"max-width:785px;\"><p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:127.39%;\"><img id=\"VMvNZbmf5eScay7joJMdFJ\" name=\"voyager-1-launch.jpg\" alt=\"NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft launches from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sept. 5, 1977.\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/VMvNZbmf5eScay7joJMdFJ.jpg\" mos=\"\" align=\"middle\" fullscreen=\"\" width=\"785\" height=\"1000\" attribution=\"\" endorsement=\"\" class=\"inline\"><\/p><\/div><\/div><figcaption itemprop=\"caption description\" class=\" inline-layout\"><span class=\"caption-text\">NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft launches from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sept. 5, 1977. <\/span><span class=\"credit\" itemprop=\"copyrightHolder\">(Image credit: NASA\/KSC)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><p>Voyager 1 is a space exploration icon and NASA's ultimate long-lasting mission.<\/p><p>The spacecraft was part of a two spacecraft mission (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/voyager-2\"><u>Voyager 2<\/u><\/a> launched a few weeks earlier) to explore the outer solar system like never before. While Voyager 2 launched on a four-planet \"Grand Tour\" of the solar system, a trajectory that included flybys of Jupiter, Saturn, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/45-uranus-seventh-planet-in-earths-solar-system-was-first-discovered-planet.html\"><u>Uranus<\/u><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/41-neptune-the-other-blue-planet-in-our-solar-system.html\"><u>Neptune<\/u><\/a>, it wasn't the fastest of missions. <\/p><p>Voyager 1 launched on a fast-track to Jupiter. In fact, the probe actually overtook Voyager 2 on the way to Jupiter and arrived their first for a flyby in March 1979. A year later, in November 1980, Voyager 1 passed by Saturn in a flyby that shot it out of the solar system. <\/p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/content.jwplatform.com\/players\/WfxRyTLt.html\" id=\"WfxRyTLt\" title=\"Voyager 1 Trajectory - 1977 to 2017\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"auto\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><figure class=\"van-image-figure  inline-layout\" data-bordeaux-image-check ><div class='image-full-width-wrapper'><div class='image-widthsetter' style=\"max-width:1920px;\"><p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%;\"><img id=\"2LtFhcaQXV7cBaUx7Nra4A\" name=\"voyager-1.jpg\" alt=\"Voyager 1, launched in September 1977, is currently exploring the farthest edges of the solar system.\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/2LtFhcaQXV7cBaUx7Nra4A.jpg\" mos=\"\" align=\"middle\" fullscreen=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" attribution=\"\" endorsement=\"\" class=\"inline\"><\/p><\/div><\/div><figcaption itemprop=\"caption description\" class=\" inline-layout\"><span class=\"caption-text\">Voyager 1, launched in September 1977, is currently exploring the farthest edges of the solar system. <\/span><span class=\"credit\" itemprop=\"copyrightHolder\">(Image credit: NASA)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><p>By Feb. 17, 1998, Voyager 1 grabbed the record as the farthest human-built object after it flew farther than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/17651-pioneer-10.html\"><u>Pioneer 10 <\/u><\/a>and in 2012, the spacecraft became the first probe ever to enter interstellar space. It remains NASA's farthest flung mission still active today.<\/p><p>Today, Voyager 1 is 15.9 billion miles (171.6 astronomical units) from Earth and still flying. Even 49 years after launch, the spacecraft is still collecting some data, but its nuclear <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/13702-nuclear-generators-rtg-power-nasa-planetary-probes-infographic.html\"><u>radioisotope thermoelectric generator<\/u><\/a> does not produce as much power as it did at launch, so NASA teams have steadily shut down heaters and unneeded instruments over the decades. <\/p><p>Earlier this year, on April 17, NASA commanded<a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-exploration\/nasa-shuts-down-voyager-1-instrument-to-keep-probe-exploring-interstellar-space\"><u> Voyager 1 to shut down its low-energy charged particles experiment<\/u><\/a> to save power. For nearly 50 years, the instrument has provided constant measurements on the ion, electron and cosmic ray environment in deep space. <\/p><p>Want more space history? Check out our<a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/tag\/on-this-day-in-space\"><u> <\/u><u><strong>full On This Day In Space Story archive<\/strong><\/u><\/a> and watch our<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLCE-SVF9BSTdloyi4P9TmQVTp9Q2zTb27\" ><u> <\/u><u><strong>On This Day In Space videos on YouTube<\/strong><\/u><\/a>.<\/p><div style=\"min-height: 550px;\">                                <div class=\"kwizly-quiz kwizly-ORg9vX\"><\/div>                            <\/div>                            <script src=\"https:\/\/kwizly.com\/embed\/ORg9vX.js\" async><\/script>\n                                                            <\/article>\n                            \n                        ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Sept. 5, 1977, Voyager 1 began its epic journey through deep space with a glorious morning launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Here&#8217;s why it mattered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":927,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1263],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-space-exploration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65390"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65390"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65648,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65390\/revisions\/65648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}