Skip to content
SPACE NOWHistory

The past behind what's next.

Mission

Voyager 1

A spacecraft launched in 1977 to survey the outer planets, which kept going afterwards. It took the last photograph of its camera's life in 1990 and still returns data.

  • Revision: 1
  • Dates: 1977-09-05 (day precision)
  • Last reviewed: 2026-08-14
  • Status: Operating, cameras permanently off since 1990

Orientation

Role: Outer planet reconnaissance, then interstellar science

Operator or programme: NASA / Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Geography: Interstellar space

Chronology

  1. day precisionVoyager 1 enters the record.

Related records

  • explained by

    Why photograph the Earth from four billion miles, and then stop?

    Confidence: high · 1990-02-14 (day precision)

  • communicates with

    The link that still reaches the spacecraft.

    Confidence: high · 1977-09-05 (day precision)

  • relates to

    Hardware you can service, and hardware you never can.

    Confidence: high · 1977-09-05 (day precision)

Inspect the record1 assertion, each with its source

  • On 14 February 1990 Voyager 1 photographed Earth from about 3.7 billion miles from the Sun as part of a 60-image family portrait, then powered its cameras off 34 minutes later.

    Source class: space agency recordNASA Science — Voyager 1's Pale Blue DotView the source

CorrectionsNone recorded

No corrections recordedThis record has not been corrected since it was published.