Voyager 2

Mission Profile

Voyager 2 is a NASA deep space probe launched on 20 August 1977 aboard a Titan IIIE/Centaur, taking advantage of a rare planetary alignment to conduct the only flyby of all four outer planets during the Grand Tour mission. Flying past Jupiter in 1979, Saturn in 1981, Uranus in 1986, and Neptune in 1989, Voyager 2 remains the only spacecraft to have visited Uranus and Neptune, discovering 11 new Uranian moons, a new ring system, and capturing Neptune's Great Dark Spot. On 5 November 2018, Voyager 2 became the second human-made object to enter interstellar space after Voyager 1, and uniquely carries a working plasma science instrument that can measure the interstellar medium directly. Like its twin, Voyager 2 carries a Golden Record of Earth sounds and images intended for any extraterrestrial civilization that might encounter it millennia hence.