NASA’s Greatest Success So Far Is… Voyager I?

That statement may seem a bit naive, considering we just returned from a highly successful new moon mission with Artemis II, but bear with me, I think my logic is solid.

Let's Get Nerdy!

It’s hard to truly wrap your mind around just how big the universe is; numbers get so large they begin to lose their meaning. But now and then, a story comes along to remind us just how large and seemingly unattainable it is.

Later this year (November), Voyager 1 will reach a milestone that sounds almost unbelievable: one light-day away from Earth. That means the spacecraft will be so far out in space that even a signal traveling at the speed of light will take a full 24 hours to reach it. For engineers at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, this means a 48-hour wait between sending a command and getting a response.

Light Day?

• Question: How far does light travel in just one day?
• Answer: A single light-day equals about 16.1 billion miles!

Voyager I History

Launched on September 5, 1977, Voyager 1 has spent nearly five decades racing away from Earth at around 38,000 miles per hour. In 1979, it returned images of Jupiter, then in 1980, it made a stunning flyby of Saturn. In 1990, Voyager 1 sent back the famous "Pale Blue Dot" image, not Earth's first selfie, but one with its longest arm yet.

In 2012, Voyager 1 crossed into interstellar space, becoming the first human-made object to leave our solar system. Even now, it continues to send back valuable data about the vast, mysterious region between the stars.

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Onboard, the spacecraft carries the Golden Record, a kind of time capsule filled with sounds and images meant to represent life on Earth in the 1970s. If the aliens find that, I hope they can figure out how to play it.

The Staggering Numbers

For all that distance, Voyager 1 has barely scratched the surface of our galactic neighborhood. The nearest star system, Proxima Centauri, is still about 4.24 light-years away, roughly 25 trillion miles. It took Voyager 1 about 35 years just to exit our solar system, and it won’t come close to another star for another 40,000 years.

In the grand scale of the universe, even our fastest spacecraft is moving at little more than a crawl. Interstellar travel is not in our future using current technology.

So Why, NASA's Greatest Achievement?

As I stated in the headline, Voyager I is NASA's greatest achievement, but what I mean is, so far. Because:

• It was launched going on 50 years ago
• That 1970s technology still works
• It's still going.

Sadly, there's not much it can tell us anymore other than the environmental conditions surrounding it. There's nothing out there that we know of to photograph, and who knows if the images would even make it back to us. The ship's onboard power source will eventually give out, and we will never hear from it again after that. That day will be a sad one indeed. But what other 50+ year successful NASA missions can you point to?

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I was born in 1962, so I have been watching space flight all of my life, the successes and failures. The Mercury and Apollo missions, Skylab, the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station, and now the Artemis quest to return to the moon, Mars, and beyond. I wish them continued success with as few failures as possible. But for my money, the humble little probe Voyager I is NASA's greatest achievement, so far.

With any luck, it won't come back in 300 years as V-ger to merge with its creator. Forgive the Trek-Nerd in me, somebody, please beam me up!

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