Voyager 1: One Light-Day from Home
On 18 November 2026 Voyager 1 reaches one light-day from Earth, about 25.89 billion kilometres, a few weeks after a two-day pause in contact that its engineers fixed by switching thrusters. This film explains what a light-day is, how the 1977 launches used a rare line-up of the giant planets and gravity assists, what Voyager 1 found at Jupiter and Saturn, the Golden Record and the Pale Blue Dot, how it crossed the edge of the Sun's bubble into interstellar space in 2012, and how a 23-watt transmitter, the Deep Space Network’s giant dishes at three sites and a slowly fading plutonium power supply keep it talking.
One light-day from home
The most distant thing humans have made is about to pass a milestone.
What is a light-day?
A distance measured in time.
Two launches, 1977
A rare line-up of the giant planets.
Borrowing a planet’s speed
The gravity assist.
Jupiter, 1979
Volcanoes on another world.
Saturn and Titan, 1980
A close look, and a one-way ticket out.
A letter with no address
The Golden Record.
The Pale Blue Dot
A last look home.
The Sun’s bubble
The termination shock.
Into interstellar space
How we knew it had left the bubble.
Listening for a whisper
Three giant ears around the world.
Running on fading heat
Power, and what gets switched off.
How long can it last?
A spacecraft that looks after itself.
The farthest voice
Timeline and sources.
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