ORIGIN: SOL SYSTEM DEPARTURE NODE
BEARING: 035.6° ECLIPTIC NORTH
RANGE: 23.4 BILLION KILOMETERS
STATUS: TRANSMITTING
All primary systems remain operational beyond design specification. The probe continues transmitting science data at 160 bits per second — a rate considered impossible at this range when engineers first calculated the mission profile in 1977.
Cape Canaveral. A Titan IIIE-Centaur boosts the probe into a trajectory that will use Jupiter's gravity to fling it toward Saturn, Uranus, and beyond. No one on the launch team expects to still be receiving data in 2026.
First close flyby of the Jovian system. Io's volcanoes discovered — the first confirmed active volcanoes beyond Earth. The imaging system returns 18,000 photographs in 48 hours.
Saturn's rings resolved to individual ringlets. Titan's nitrogen atmosphere confirmed — the only moon with a dense atmosphere. The probe is now aimed permanently at the stars.
Scientists confirm the probe has crossed the heliopause — the boundary where solar wind yields to interstellar medium. Humanity's first instrument now moves through the space between stars.