NASA Voyager
This image provided byNASA/JPL-Caltech shows as John Casani, Voyager project manager in 1977, holding a small Dacron flag that was folded and sewed into the thermal blankets of the Voyager spacecraft before they launched, below him lie the Golden Record, left, and its cover, right, in the background stands Voyager 2 before it headed to the launch pad, Cape Canaveral, Fla., Aug. 4, 1977.
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NASA's Voyager 1 is about to become humanity's first object to reach one light-day from Earth. That's a mind-blowing distance of more than 16 billion miles. The spacecraft will reach the extraordinary milestone on Wednesday. At that point, its radio signals will take precisely 24 hours traveling at the speed of light to reach Earth. Its twin Voyager 2 is expected to reach one light-day in 2035. Launched in 1977, the Voyagers have been pushing ever deeper into interstellar space after visiting the outer planets and exiting the solar system.
