NASA's Voyager 1 probe poised to achieve mega-distance milestone

An artist's concept depicts a NASA Voyager spacecraft travelling through interstellar space, in this image released on May 14, 2025. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout via REUTERS

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WASHINGTON, Nov 14 : NASA's Voyager 1 has already traveled farther than any other spacecraft from Earth since its launch in 1977. The probe, which exited our solar system years ago and is journeying through interstellar space, is now on the cusp of a remarkable milestone — traversing a light-day, the distance light travels in 24 hours.

A light-day is about 16 billion miles (26 billion km). The US space agency said Voyager 1, flying at almost 38,000 miles per hour (61,000 kph) through the virtual vacuum of space, will reach that distance from Earth on Wednesday at 5:16 a.m. ET (1016 GMT). The robotic spacecraft has the distinction of being the most distant human-made object.

"I view it as an engineering milestone, marking the amazing longevity of Voyager 1 — and also an engineering achievement to be able to communicate with Voyager 1 at its distance," said astrophysicist Alan Cummings, a senior research scientist in the Space Radiation Laboratory at Caltech who has been a Voyager program scientist since 1973.

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