Voyager 2

*Voyager 2*
	Artist's rendering of the Voyager spacecraft design
Mission type	Planetary exploration
Operator	NASA / JPL
COSPAR ID	1977-076A
SATCAT no.	10271
Website	science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/
Mission duration	Total: 49 years, 24 days (elapsed); ; Planetary mission: 12 years, 1 month, 12 days; ; Interstellar mission: 36 years, 346 days (elapsed); ;
Spacecraft properties
Manufacturer	Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Launch mass	721.9 kg (1,592 lb)
Power	470 watts (at launch)
Start of mission
Launch date	August 20, 1977, 14:29:00 UTC
Rocket	Titan IIIE
Launch site	Cape Canaveral LC-41
Flyby of Jupiter
Closest approach	July 9, 1979
Distance	570,000 kilometers (350,000 mi)
Flyby of Saturn
Closest approach	August 26, 1981
Distance	101,000 km (63,000 mi)
Flyby of Uranus
Closest approach	January 24, 1986
Distance	81,500 km (50,600 mi)
Flyby of Neptune
Closest approach	August 25, 1989
Distance	4,951 km (3,076 mi)
ISS
Instruments
ISS	Imaging Science System
RSS	Radio Science System
IRIS	Infrared interferometer spectrometer and radiometer
UVS	Ultraviolet Spectrometer
MAG	Triaxial Fluxgate Magnetometer
PLS	Plasma Spectrometer
LECP	Low Energy Charged Particle Instrument
CRS	Cosmic Ray System
PRA	Planetary Radio Astronomy Investigation
PPS	Photopolarimeter System
PWS	Plasma Wave Subsystem
	Large Strategic Science Missions; Planetary Science Division Voyager program

Heliocentric positions of the five interstellar probes (squares) and other bodies (circles) until 2030, with launch and flyby dates. Markers denote positions on 1 January of each year, with every fifth year labelled.
Plot 1 is viewed from the north ecliptic pole, to scale.
Plots 2 to 4 are third-angle projections at 20% scale.
In the SVG file, hover over a trajectory or orbit to highlight it and its associated launches and flybys.

Voyager 2 is a space probe launched by NASA on August 20, 1977, as a part of the Voyager program. It was launched on a trajectory towards the gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn) and enabled further encounters with the ice giants (Uranus and Neptune). The only spacecraft to have visited either of the ice giant planets, it was the third of five spacecraft to achieve Solar escape velocity, which allowed it to leave the Solar System. Launched 16 days before its twin Voyager 1, the primary mission of the spacecraft was to study the outer planets and its extended mission is to study interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere.

Voyager 2 successfully fulfilled its primary mission of visiting the Jovian system in 1979, the Saturnian system in 1981, Uranian system in 1986, and the Neptunian system in 1989. The spacecraft is now in its extended mission of studying the interstellar medium. It is at a distance of 143.05 AU (21.4 billion km; 13.3 billion mi) from Earth as of February 2026.

The probe entered the interstellar medium on November 5, 2018, at a distance of 119.7 AU (11.1 billion mi; 17.9 billion km) from the Sun and moving at 15.341 km/s (34,320 mph) relative to the Sun. Voyager 2 has left the Sun's heliosphere and is traveling through the interstellar medium, though still inside the Solar System, joining Voyager 1, which reached the interstellar medium in 2012. Voyager 2 has begun to provide the first direct measurements of the density and temperature of the interstellar plasma.

Voyager 2 is in contact with Earth through the NASA Deep Space Network. Communications are the responsibility of Australia's DSS 43 communication antenna, part of the Canberra communication complex; the craft's southern trajectory puts it out of range of the network's Goldstone and Madrid complexes.