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More than four decades after their launch, the twin Voyager spacecraft remain among humanity’s greatest engineering achievements. Launched in 1977, the two robotic explorers were originally designed for a relatively modest mission: conduct flybys of the giant outer planets and then continue into deep space. Instead, they became history’s longest-running and most distant spacecraft.
Today, Voyager 1 is more than one light-day from Earth. Put another way, a radio signal traveling at the speed of light takes over 24 hours to reach it. Voyager 2 trails behind but remains unimaginably distant. Both spacecraft are now moving through interstellar space, beyond the protective bubble of charged particles known as the heliosphere.
The Voyagers achieved this remarkable feat using technology that would seem primitive by modern standards. Their computers possess less processing power than a digital wristwatch.
