it is the 37th anniversary of Voyager I's Saturn approach

This day, 37 years ago, NASA's Voyager I spacecraft approached Saturn and sent back images of the outer planet.

Saturn from Voyager I. Photo: NASA

The spacecrafts' statistics are mind-boggling:

• it has travelled through space for forty years and two months - and counting
• it's the spacecraft that has covered the farthest distance from Earth
• it became the first craft to enter interstellar space, having crossed the boundaries of the heliopause on 25th August 2012. That's 14.4 billion kilometres away.
• it travels at 17 kilometres per second. It would take just over 7 minutes to cover the distance between Cairo and Cape Town
• it will continue its trajectory for the next 40,000 years, perhaps eternally, if it does not collide with any object

YouTube video links:

Voyager 1 trajectory through the Solar System

Voyager 1: The Complete Story [1977 - 2017]