NASA’s Voyager 1 to hit new space distance record of one light-day

NASA has announced that its Voyager 1 probe will soon become humanity’s first object to travel one light-day from Earth. On Wednesday, the robotic space probe will hit the milestone of travelling at least 16 billion miles since its launch in 1977, a distance equal to one light-day, or how far light can travel in 24 hours.

The probe completed its Saturn flyby in 1980, the end of its primary planetary mission, and is currently travelling at roughly 36,000 miles per hour (58km/h) in interstellar space, the vast gap between stars. Plutonium-powered Voyager 1 was launched shortly before another probe, Voyager 2.

Both continue to relay data back to Earth daily, including readings on the strength and direction of the magnetic field as well as on the surrounding pressure, dust and galactic cosmic rays. Both are kept active by a skeleton team of NASA engineers who send commands roughly once a week, and more if the probe gets into trouble.