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Voyager program

American scientific program consisting of the probes Voyager 1 and Voyager 2

Specimen drawers, botanical folios and brass scientific instruments under study light
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 9, 2026
Entity authorityQ155311
Source-derived summary

The Voyager program is an American scientific program that employs two interstellar probes, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. They were launched in 1977 to take advantage of a favorable planetary alignment to explore the two gas giants Jupiter and Saturn and potentially also the ice giants, Uranus and Neptune—to fly near them while collecting data for transmission back to Earth. After Voyager 1 successfully completed its flyby of Saturn and its moon Titan, it was decided that Voyager 2 would continue on its pre-planned trajectory to fly by Uranus and Neptune.

After the planetary flybys were complete, decisions were made to keep the probes in operation to explore interstellar space and the outer regions of the Solar System. On 25 August 2012, data from Voyager 1 indicated that it had entered interstellar space. On 5 November 2019, data from Voyager 2 indicated that it also had entered interstellar space. On 4 November 2019, scientists reported that on 5 November 2018, the Voyager 2 probe had officially reached the interstellar medium (ISM), a region of outer space beyond the influence of the solar wind, as did Voyager 1 in 2012. In August 2018, NASA confirmed, based on results by the New Horizons spacecraft, the existence of a "hydrogen wall" at the outer edges of the Solar System that was first detected in 1992 by the two Voyager spacecraft.

As of 2026, both Voyagers are still in operation beyond the outer boundary of the heliosphere in interstellar space. As of 2024, Voyager 1 was moving with a velocity of 61,000 kilometers per hour (38,000 mph), or 17 km/s, (10.5 miles/second) relative to the Sun, and was 24.5 billion kilometers (164 AU) from the Sun.

Editorial summary

“Voyager program” enters the record as american scientific program consisting of the probes Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Voyager, program and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewUseful for establishing the present vocabulary of the subject while preserving a route back to the evidence on which that vocabulary rests. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1977, 2012, 2019, 2018—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1977. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Voyager, program and American.
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Why this record matters

“Voyager program” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Voyager, program and American provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q155311. VIAF identifies the subject as 146712708. The Library of Congress control number is n90692226. 1 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1977, 2012, 2019 and 2018.

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A general summary may omit uncertainty, sample limits or methodological disagreement that is explicit in the technical record. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Voyager program” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.