OrbitalMap a live chronicle of orbit

Spacecraft

Voyager 2

The only spacecraft to have visited all four giant planets, using an alignment that comes round once in 175 years: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus in 1986 and Neptune in 1989 - the only close look anybody has ever had at the last two. It crossed into interstellar space in 2018, on a course far south of the plane of the planets.

Agency
NASA
Launched
1977-08-20 - still working

Path

Open as well, and steeper. Neptune bent it south in 1989, so it leaves the Solar System about 48° below the plane of the planets at some 15 km/s.

Along the way

  • Closest to Jupiter
  • Closest to Saturn
  • The only close look anyone has had at Uranus
  • The only close look anyone has had at Neptune
  • Crossed the heliopause, six years after its twin

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The mission's own page

Everything the map shows is worked out in your browser from published orbital data - nothing on it is a stored picture of where things were.