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Voyager 1 is a 722-kilogram (1,590 lb) space probe launched by NASA on September 5, 1977 to study the outer Solar System. Operating for 36 years and 11 days as of 16 September 2013, the spacecraft communicates with the Deep Space Network to receive routine commands and return data. At a distance of about 125 AU from the Sun as of August 2013, it is the farthest manmade object from Earth.

The primary mission ended on November 20, 1980, after encounters with the Jovian system in 1979 and the Saturnian system in 1980. It was the first probe to provide detailed images of the two planets and their moons. As part of the Voyager program, and like its sister craft Voyager 2, the spacecraft's final mission is to locate and study the boundaries of the Solar System, including the Kuiper belt and the outer zones of the heliosphere, and begin exploring the interstellar medium.

On September 12, 2013, NASA announced that Voyager 1 had crossed the heliopause and entered interstellar space on August 25, 2012, making it the first manmade object to do so. As of 2013, the probe was moving with a relative velocity to the Sun of 17.037 km/s (38,110 mph; 61,330 km/h). The amount of power available to the probe is decreasing over time; by 2025, it will no longer be able to power any single instrument.

The space probe took the first photograph pf the Earth and the Moon together.




(photo source http://www.livescience.com)