# Where is Voyager 1 now? > Voyager 1's distance from Earth, live, and the countdown to 18 November 2026, when it becomes the first human-made object a full light-day away. HTML: https://www.theuniversecounts.com/solar-system/spacecraft/voyager-1 Numbers as of 2026-10-31 03:44 UTC. Live ones keep changing on the HTML page. Voyager 1 is about 25.9 billion kilometres from Earth. No object we have made has gone farther. A radio signal from Earth takes 23 h 57 m 27 s to reach it, and the trip grows longer every second. As of 18 October 2026 it moves at 16.92 kilometres per second relative to the Sun. Since you opened this page, it has travelled another [counts up live on the page] kilometres. On 18 November 2026 it becomes the first spacecraft a full light-day from home. It is still sending back what it measures, from beyond the Sun's own wind. - Time for light from Earth to reach Voyager 1: 23 h 57 m 27 s - Voyager 1's speed relative to the Sun: 16.92 km/s - Time until Voyager 1 is one light-day away: 18 d 06 h 31 m 50 s - Time since Voyager 1's launch: 49 y 55 d 8 h ## Past every planet, past the Sun's own wind How far is that? Voyager 1 is a robotic spacecraft that NASA launched in 1977 to fly past Jupiter and Saturn. It never stopped. It is still heading outward, and still sending us what it measures. On this line, each step is ten times farther than the last. Jupiter circles the Sun at about 5.2 times Earth's distance. Neptune, the last planet, circles at about 30. Voyager 1 is far past both, 25.8 billion kilometres from the Sun. It has also passed the edge of the Sun's bubble, where the solar wind gives way to the gas between the stars. Nothing else we have built has been so far from home. Yet look how much of the line is still empty. The nearest star, Proxima Centauri, is 4.2465 light-years away. Light from Voyager reaches us in less than a day. Light from Proxima needs years. Our farthest traveller has only begun the crossing. ## The faster road out 5 September 1977 Voyager 1 left Cape Canaveral on 5 September 1977, a little after its twin, Voyager 2. It took a faster, shorter route, and it passed Voyager 2 on 15 December 1977. It reached Jupiter on 5 March 1979. There the Voyagers saw active volcanoes on the moon Io, the first ever seen on another world. At Saturn, on 12 November 1980, it flew close past the moon Titan. Its thick haze hid the surface completely. That close pass bent Voyager 1's path north, up and out of the plane where the planets orbit. So it never went on to Uranus or Neptune. It took the fast road out instead. On 17 February 1998 it overtook Pioneer 10 and became the farthest object we have ever made. ## It turned around and took a picture of us 14 February 1990 By early 1990 Voyager 1 had passed every planet it would ever visit. Carl Sagan, a member of its imaging team, had first suggested in 1981 that it look back at home. On 14 February 1990 it did, and took the first family portrait of the planets. From about 6 billion kilometres away, Earth was a crescent only 0.12 of a pixel in size. It sits in a ray of sunlight scattered inside the camera. Everyone who has ever lived is in that point of light. Minutes after the Earth frames, Voyager 1 switched off its cameras for good, to save power for the long road ahead. No spacecraft has tried to take that family portrait since. ## It left the Sun's bubble 25 August 2012 The Sun blows a wind of charged particles in every direction. It carves a bubble, the heliosphere, in the gas between the stars. The edge of that bubble is called the heliopause. Voyager 1 crossed it on 25 August 2012, about 120 times as far from the Sun as Earth is. It became the first object we made to sail in interstellar space. At first nobody could be sure. Its plasma instrument had stopped working in 1980, so it could not see the solar wind fade. Almost a year later, its plasma wave instrument picked up the hum of much denser gas around it. That was the sign: outside the bubble, the gas between the stars is colder and denser than the Sun's wind. ## Two instruments still listening As of 17 April 2026 Voyager 1 runs on electricity made from the heat of decaying plutonium. The supply shrinks a little every year. So engineers switch parts off, in an order the team agreed years ago. The cameras went dark in 1990, right after the Pale Blue Dot. The cosmic ray instrument followed on 25 February 2025, and the low-energy particle instrument on 17 April 2026. As of that date, 2 still work: the magnetometer and the plasma wave instrument. On Voyager 2, engineers have since freed up power by swapping several devices for lower-power ones at once, a move nicknamed the "Big Bang". NASA plans the same for Voyager 1. That might even let the particle instrument come back on. ## One light-day 18 November 2026 ยท 10:16 UTC Light covers about 25.9 billion kilometres in a day. On 18 November 2026 at 10:16 UTC, Voyager 1 will be that far from Earth. No object we have made has been a light-day away before. After that, a message we send at breakfast reaches Voyager the following breakfast. Its answer reaches us the morning after that. Every question to the spacecraft becomes a conversation across days. The gap keeps growing. Over a year it wobbles a little, as Earth swings around the Sun, but Voyager never turns back. Each day, the signal's trip is a little longer than the day before. ## FAQ ### How far is Voyager 1 from Earth right now? About 25.9 billion kilometres. The distance changes every second. Over a year it even wobbles a little, because Earth moves around the Sun while Voyager moves steadily away. ### Has Voyager 1 left the solar system? It left the Sun's bubble of solar wind, the heliosphere, on 25 August 2012, so it is in interstellar space. But the Sun's gravity still rules far beyond it, out to the icy Oort cloud. NASA estimates it will take about 300 years to reach the cloud's inner edge, and possibly about 30,000 years to pass beyond it. ### How fast is Voyager 1 going? About 16.92 kilometres every second, relative to the Sun, as of 18 October 2026. Its twin, Voyager 2, moves at about 15.26 kilometres per second. Voyager 1 is the faster of the two. ### Is Voyager 1 still working? Yes. As of 17 April 2026, 2 of its science instruments are on: the magnetometer and the plasma wave instrument. Its power falls a little every year, so engineers switch parts off to keep it going. ### What is on the Golden Record? Each Voyager carries a gold-plated copper disc with sounds and images of life on Earth. It holds spoken greetings in 55 languages, and music from Bach and Mozart to Chuck Berry. Symbols on its cover show where Earth is, using pulsars as landmarks. ### When will Voyager 1 be one light-day from Earth? On 18 November 2026 at 10:16:07 UTC, according to NASA. It will be the first object we have made to get that far. ## Related - [Voyager 2](https://www.theuniversecounts.com/solar-system/spacecraft/voyager-2.md) - [New Horizons](https://www.theuniversecounts.com/solar-system/spacecraft/new-horizons.md) The signal we send today arrives tomorrow. What would you want it to say? ## Sources - Distance light travels in one day (Measured): [NIST: CODATA value: speed of light in vacuum](https://physics.nist.gov/cgi-bin/cuu/Value?c); [BIPM: SI defining constants](https://www.bipm.org/en/measurement-units/si-defining-constants) - Distance to Proxima Centauri (Measured, with error): [Astronomy & Astrophysics: Gaia Data Release 3: Summary of the content and survey properties (Gaia Collaboration, Vallenari et al. 2023)](https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202243940); [ESA: Gaia Data License](https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia-users/license) - Earth's average distance from the Sun (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Earth Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/earthfact.html) - Earth's size in the Pale Blue Dot frame (Measured): [NASA JPL: PIA00452: Solar System Portrait - Earth as 'Pale Blue Dot'](https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00452) - James Webb Space Telescope's distance from Earth (Measured): [NASA JPL: JPL Horizons API, JWST geocentric vectors (geometric)](https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api?format=text&COMMAND='-170'&OBJ_DATA='NO'&MAKE_EPHEM='YES'&EPHEM_TYPE='VECTORS'&CENTER='500@399'&START_TIME='2026-10-18'&STOP_TIME='2026-10-19'&STEP_SIZE='1d'&VEC_TABLE='3'&VEC_CORR='NONE'&OUT_UNITS='KM-S'&TIME_TYPE='UT') - Juno's distance from Earth (Measured): [NASA: NASA's Juno Mission Captures Jupiter Moon Thebe](https://science.nasa.gov/photojournal/nasas-juno-misson-captures-jupiter-moon-thebe/) - Jupiter's average distance from the Sun (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Jupiter Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/jupiterfact.html) - Languages of the spoken greetings on the Voyager Golden Record (Measured): [NASA: Golden Record contents](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/golden-record-contents/); [NASA: Voyager 1](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/voyager-1/) - Neptune's average distance from the Sun (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Neptune Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/neptunefact.html) - New Horizons' distance from Earth (Measured): [NASA JPL: JPL Horizons API, New Horizons geocentric vectors (geometric)](https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api?format=text&COMMAND='-98'&OBJ_DATA='NO'&MAKE_EPHEM='YES'&EPHEM_TYPE='VECTORS'&CENTER='500@399'&START_TIME='2026-10-18'&STOP_TIME='2026-10-19'&STEP_SIZE='1d'&VEC_TABLE='3'&VEC_CORR='NONE'&OUT_UNITS='KM-S'&TIME_TYPE='UT') - The International Space Station's mean height above Earth (Measured): [NASA: International Space Station (reference)](https://www.nasa.gov/reference/international-space-station/) - Time for light from Earth to reach Voyager 1 (Measured): [NASA JPL: Horizons API documentation](https://ssd-api.jpl.nasa.gov/doc/horizons.html) - Time for Voyager 1 to pass beyond the Oort cloud (Estimated): [NASA: Voyager Frequently Asked Questions](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/frequently-asked-questions/) - Time for Voyager 1 to reach the inner edge of the Oort cloud (Estimated): [NASA: Voyager Frequently Asked Questions](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/frequently-asked-questions/) - Time since Voyager 1's launch (Measured): [NASA: Voyager Fact Sheet](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/fact-sheet/) - Time until Voyager 1 is one light-day away (Measured): [NASA: Where Are Voyager 1 and 2 Now? (Instrument Status table)](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/where-are-voyager-1-and-voyager-2-now/); [NASA: Voyager 1: What Is a Light-Day](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/voyager-1/voyager-1-what-is-a-light-day/) - Voyager 1 science instruments still switched on (Measured): [NASA: Where Are Voyager 1 and 2 Now? (Instrument Status table)](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/where-are-voyager-1-and-voyager-2-now/); [NASA: NASA Shuts Off Instrument on Voyager 1 to Keep Spacecraft Operating](https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/voyager/2026/04/17/nasa-shuts-off-instrument-on-voyager-1-to-keep-spacecraft-operating/) - Voyager 1's distance from Earth (Measured): [NASA JPL: Horizons API documentation](https://ssd-api.jpl.nasa.gov/doc/horizons.html) - Voyager 1's distance from Earth when it took the Pale Blue Dot (Measured): [NASA: What is the Pale Blue Dot?](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/voyager-1s-pale-blue-dot/) - Voyager 1's distance from the Sun (Measured): [NASA JPL: JPL Horizons API, Voyager 1 heliocentric vectors (geometric)](https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api?format=text&COMMAND='-31'&OBJ_DATA='NO'&MAKE_EPHEM='YES'&EPHEM_TYPE='VECTORS'&CENTER='500@10'&START_TIME='2026-10-18'&STOP_TIME='2026-10-19'&STEP_SIZE='1d'&VEC_TABLE='3'&VEC_CORR='NONE'&OUT_UNITS='KM-S'&TIME_TYPE='UT') - Voyager 1's distance from the Sun when it crossed the heliopause (Measured): [American Geophysical Union: Voyager Observations of the Heliospheric Interface (AGU Fall Meeting 2014 abstract)](https://studio.m-anage.com/agu/fm14/webprogram/Paper4456.html); [NASA: Voyager Interstellar Mission](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/interstellar-mission/) - Voyager 1's speed relative to the Sun (Measured): [NASA: Voyager 1: What Is a Light-Day](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/voyager-1/voyager-1-what-is-a-light-day/) - Voyager 2's distance from Earth (Measured): [NASA JPL: JPL Horizons API, Voyager 2 geocentric vectors (geometric)](https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api?format=text&COMMAND='-32'&OBJ_DATA='NO'&MAKE_EPHEM='YES'&EPHEM_TYPE='VECTORS'&CENTER='500@399'&START_TIME='2026-10-18'&STOP_TIME='2026-10-19'&STEP_SIZE='1d'&VEC_TABLE='3'&VEC_CORR='NONE'&OUT_UNITS='KM-S'&TIME_TYPE='UT') - Voyager 2's speed relative to the Sun (Measured): [NASA JPL: JPL Horizons API, Voyager 2 heliocentric vectors](https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/api/horizons.api?format=text&COMMAND='-32'&OBJ_DATA='NO'&MAKE_EPHEM='YES'&EPHEM_TYPE='VECTORS'&CENTER='500@10'&START_TIME='2026-10-20'&STOP_TIME='2026-10-21'&STEP_SIZE='1d'&VEC_TABLE='2'&VEC_CORR='NONE'&OUT_UNITS='KM-S'&TIME_TYPE='UT')