Current Status of Voyagers 1 and 2 Spacecraft PHP Program by Jay Tanner of Waterloo, NY, USA - 2025

Refresh Page to Update to Current Moment UTC Computations via the NASA/JPL Horizons API  View/Copy PHP Source Code  Double-Click Within Text Area to Select ALL Text VOYAGER SPACECRAFT 1 and 2 CURRENT GEOCENTRIC COORDINATES AND DISTANCES FROM EARTH AND EACH OTHER IN SPACE Computed via the NASA/JPL Horizons API With a Little Extra High School Math For Current Date and Time 2025-Sep-14 11:41 UTC ************************************************************** VOYAGER 1 SPACECRAFT -------------------- Launched from Kennedy Space Center 1977-Sep-06-Tue @ 12:56 UTC Time since launch = 17,540 days = 2,505 weeks and 5 days = 48.02190 years ago CURRENT ICRF SKY COORDINATES Right Ascension Declination Distance h m s ° ' " AU | km | mi 17 14 07.117482 +12 14 11.20021 168.260874196251 AU 17.23531041167h +12.2364445028° 25,171,468,502 km 258.5296561750° 15,640,825,393 mi Light Time 23:19:23 ************************************************************** VOYAGER 2 SPACECRAFT -------------------- Launched from Kennedy Space Center 1977-Aug-20-Sat @ 14:29 UTC Time since launch = 17,557 days = 2,508 weeks and 1 day = 48.06845 years ago CURRENT ICRF SKY COORDINATES Right Ascension Declination Distance h m s ° ' " AU | km | mi 20 09 13.232333 -59 35 53.27614 140.383155240334 AU 20.15367564806h -59.5981322611° 21,001,021,106 km 302.3051347209° 13,049,429,523 mi Light Time 19:27:32 ************************************************************** ************************************************************** Current linear distance between Voyagers 1 and 2 in space: 199.4614074105 AU = 29,839,001,835 km = 18,541,096,146 mi ############################################################## ############################################################## SOME APPLIED DEFINITIONS AND EXTRA INFO FROM NASA/JPL ICRF = International Celestial Reference Frame 1 AU = 1 Astronomical Unit = 149,597,870.700 km = 92,955,807.273 mi 1 mi = 1.609344 km 1 Standard (Julian) Year = 365.25 days --------------------------------------------------------------- Refs: www.nasa.gov/image-article/voyager-2-launched-before-voyager-1 www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/voyager-2 www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/voyager-1 Voyager 2 launched on Aug. 20, 1977, about two weeks before the Sept. 6 (UTC) launch of Voyager 1. Why the reversal of order? The two were sent on different trajectories, and Voyager 1 was put on a path to reach its planetary targets, Jupiter and Saturn, ahead of Voyager 2. ===================================== SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT VOYAGER DISTANCES: When tracking the distances to the Voyager spacecraft, you would notice that there are times when the distances seem to be decreasing with time, rather than increasing with time. This is because when Earth is on one side of its orbit, it is moving towards the spacecraft faster than the spacecraft are moving away from us. When the Earth is on the other side of its orbit, then the situa- tion is reversed and the distance is increasing over time. The linear speed of the spacecraft receding from Earth does not change. It is the speed of the Earth from which we are making the observations that is moving at cyclically varying relative speed over the year orb- iting the sun. So, approximately 1/2 of a year, the spacecraft are moving away from Earth and the other 1/2 year towards Earth. https://earthsky.org/space/voyager-spacecraft-getting-closer-to-earth/ Voyager 1 moves at a speed of 38,210 miles per hour (17 km/s). Voyager 2 moves at a speed of 35,000 miles per hour (15 km/s). The speed of the Earth in orbit is about 18.5 mi/s = 66,600 mi/h 29.8 km/s = 107,200 km/h