Where is Voyager 2 now?

21,627,715,222

kilometres · Voyager 2's distance from Earth

Voyager 2 is about 21.6 billion kilometres from Earth, and still moving away. It is the only spacecraft to have visited Uranus and Neptune. On 5 November 2018 it crossed into interstellar space, the second object we made to get there. As of 20 October 2026 it travels 15.26 kilometres every second relative to the Sun. Since you opened this page, it has travelled another 0 kilometres. It launched in 1977, and 3 of its science instruments still send back what they measure.

Voyager 2's speed relative to the Sun

15.26 km/s

Measured

Time until Voyager 2 is one light-day away

3287 d 21 h 15 m 00 s

Measured, with error

Voyager 2 science instruments still switched on

Measured

Time since Voyager 2's launch

49 y 71 d 6 h

Measured

How far is that?

Past the last planet, and on

Voyager 2 is a robotic spacecraft that NASA launched in 1977, the twin of Voyager 1. It was sent to fly past the giant planets, and it has kept heading outward ever since.

Line up the spacecraft we have sent away from Earth, nearest to farthest. The space station barely leaves home. The James Webb Space Telescope works about 1.6 million kilometres away. Juno circles Jupiter, and New Horizons is farther still. Only the two Voyagers are beyond them.

Voyager 2 is second from the end, about 21.6 billion kilometres out. Neptune, the last planet it passed, circles the Sun at about 30 times Earth's distance. Voyager 2 left that orbit behind long ago.

It is slower than its twin and on a different heading. After Neptune it turned south, below the plane where the planets orbit. Voyager 1 went north. The two travel out of the Sun's family on two separate paths.

30.0690 AUNeptune's average distance from the Sun

20 August 1977

A rare line-up of the giant planets

In the late 1970s, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune lined up in a rare way. A spacecraft on just the right path could swing from one to the next. Each flyby would bend its course and speed it on, with little fuel. NASA says this layout comes round about every 175 years.

Voyager 2 launched first, on 20 August 1977. Voyager 1 followed on 5 September on a faster route. Both were funded only to study Jupiter and Saturn, and built for a mission of a few years.

Voyager 2 reached Jupiter in July 1979 and Saturn in August 1981. Its path past Saturn was chosen so that the planet's pull would send it on towards Uranus. NASA approved the Uranus visit after that, and later Neptune too.

175 yearsHow often the outer planets line up for a Voyager-style grand tour

24 January 1986 · 25 August 1989

The only visitor Uranus and Neptune have had

Every close-up view we have of Uranus and Neptune came from Voyager 2. At Uranus, on 24 January 1986, it found new moons and new rings. The planet's magnetic field turned out to be tilted far from its spin axis. The moon Miranda looked like a jumble of strange terrain pieced together.

On 25 August 1989 it skimmed over Neptune's cloud tops, the closest of all its planet flybys. Neptune was far more restless than expected, with fierce winds and a great dark storm. Its moon Triton proved the coldest known body in the solar system, with a nitrogen ice volcano on its surface.

No spacecraft has been back to either world since. Almost everything we know of them up close comes from one visit each, made by one small craft.

37 y 66 d 16 hTime since Voyager 2 flew past Neptune

5 November 2018

The second into interstellar space

After Neptune, Voyager 2 spent decades crossing the outer layers of the Sun's bubble, the heliosphere. On 30 August 2007 it passed the termination shock, where the solar wind suddenly slows.

On 5 November 2018 it crossed the bubble's edge, the heliopause. It was about 120 times as far from the Sun as Earth is. Voyager 1 had crossed in the north, at about 120. Scientists expect the edge to move as the Sun's activity rises and falls.

Voyager 2 had something its twin had lost: a working plasma instrument. So it measured the change directly, from the Sun's hot, thin wind to the colder, denser gas between the stars.

119.0 AUVoyager 2's distance from the Sun when it crossed the heliopause

As of 4 August 2026

Still listening, on less power each year

Voyager 2 runs on electricity made from the heat of decaying plutonium. The supply drops a little every year, so engineers switch parts off one by one.

Its cameras went dark after Neptune, in late 1989. The plasma instrument that measured the heliopause was switched off on 26 September 2024. The low-energy particle instrument followed on 24 March 2025.

As of 4 August 2026, 3 instruments still work. They measure cosmic rays, magnetic fields and plasma waves. Engineers recently freed up power by turning off several devices and swapping in lower-power ones at once, a move nicknamed the "Big Bang". NASA says the savings should keep the instruments running for at least an extra year.

3Voyager 2 science instruments still switched on

November 2035

One light-day

Light covers about 25.9 billion kilometres in a day. Voyager 1 reaches that distance from Earth on 18 November 2026. Voyager 2 is slower and on another path, so it will get there later.

NASA expects Voyager 2 to be one light-day from Earth in November 2035. A message already takes most of a day to reach it. The answer takes just as long to come back. Engineers send each command knowing the reply will take well over a day to arrive.

Whether it is still talking by then depends on its power. Every part switched off today saves a little for the instruments that remain.

3287 d 21 h 15 m 00 sTime until Voyager 2 is one light-day away

Questions people ask

How far is Voyager 2 from Earth right now?

About 21.6 billion kilometres. The distance changes every second. Over a year it also wobbles a little, because Earth moves around the Sun while Voyager 2 moves steadily away.

Is Voyager 2 still working?

Yes. As of 4 August 2026, 3 of its science instruments are on: the cosmic ray subsystem, the magnetometer and the plasma wave subsystem. NASA says recent power savings should keep them running for at least an extra year.

Has Voyager 2 left the solar system?

It left the Sun's bubble of solar wind, the heliosphere, on 5 November 2018, so it is in interstellar space. But the Sun's gravity still rules far beyond it, out to the icy Oort cloud.

How fast is Voyager 2 going?

About 15.26 kilometres every second relative to the Sun, as of 20 October 2026. That is a little slower than its twin, Voyager 1, at 16.92 kilometres per second.

Why did only Voyager 2 visit Uranus and Neptune?

Voyager 1 was sent close past Saturn's moon Titan, which bent its path up and out of the plane of the planets. Voyager 2 was aimed so that Saturn's gravity sent it on towards Uranus, and Uranus sent it on to Neptune.

When did Voyager 2 launch?

On 20 August 1977 at 14:29 UTC, from Cape Canaveral in Florida. It left first; Voyager 1 followed on 5 September 1977.

How do we know?

Every number on this page, and where it comes from

Fact	Value	Certainty	Source	As of
Distance light travels in one day	25,902,068,371.2 km	Measured	NIST BIPM	20 Oct 2026
How often the outer planets line up for a Voyager-style grand tour	175 years	Estimated	NASA	20 Oct 2026
James Webb Space Telescope's distance from Earth	1,591,861 km	Measured	NASA JPL	31 Oct 2026
Juno's distance from Earth	822,907,916 km	Measured	NASA JPL NASA	31 Oct 2026
Neptune's average distance from the Sun	30.0690 AU	Measured	NASA NSSDCA	1 Jan 2000
New Horizons' distance from Earth	9,914,495,901 km	Measured	NASA JPL	31 Oct 2026
The International Space Station's mean height above Earth	426 km	Measured	CelesTrak NASA	18 Oct 2026
Time since Voyager 2 flew past Neptune	37 y 66 d 16 h	Measured	NASA NASA JPL	25 Aug 1989
Time since Voyager 2's launch	49 y 71 d 6 h	Measured	NASA NASA NSSDCA	20 Aug 1977
Time until Voyager 2 is one light-day away	3287 d 21 h 15 m 00 s	Measured, with error	NASA	18 Oct 2026
Voyager 1's distance from Earth	25,856,375,056 km	Measured	NASA JPL NASA JPL	31 Oct 2026
Voyager 1's distance from the Sun when it crossed the heliopause	121.6 AU	Measured	American Geophysical Union NASA JPL NASA	25 Aug 2012
Voyager 1's speed relative to the Sun	16.92 km/s	Measured	NASA JPL NASA	18 Oct 2026
Voyager 2 science instruments still switched on	3	Measured	NASA NASA	4 Aug 2026
Voyager 2's distance from Earth	21,627,715,224 km	Measured	NASA JPL	31 Oct 2026
Voyager 2's distance from the Sun when it crossed the heliopause	119.0 AU	Measured	Nature Astronomy Nature Astronomy NASA JPL NASA JPL	5 Nov 2018
Voyager 2's speed relative to the Sun	15.26 km/s	Measured	NASA JPL	20 Oct 2026

One small craft is the only visitor Uranus and Neptune have ever had. Which world would you want us to visit next?