On September 5 , 1977 Voyager 1 was being prepped for takeoff. It’s mission? To probe the Jupiter and Saturn systems and then forever drift off into space , leaving the solar system and hoping that someday somewhere some kind of intelligent life form would find the spacecraft.

Voyager 1’s ambitious mission to explore the depths of the universe was in jeopardy even before it left planet Earth.

Voyager 1 wasn’t alone in this mission and in fact had a twin, The Voyager 2 which had taken off 16 days before the Voyager 1. When the time had come for the Voyager 1 to leave for its long lonely mission it was seconds away from disaster. 3.5 seconds to be exact. The spacecraft almost got stuck in the Earth’s atmosphere and when it finally left the atmosphere it had only 3.5 seconds of propellant left in its Titan-Centaur rocket.

A close call indeed.

“Kohlhase a NASA official explained, lay in an incorrect mixture ratio between fuel and oxidizer in the Titan’s liquid upper stage. That made things difficult for the Centaur, which took over after the Titan was done firing.”

“The Centaur spent 1,200 extra pounds of fuel to get into parking orbit that it should not have normally needed to do,” Kohlhase said.

Where are they now?

The voyagers are still on their mission going strong right now. Voyager 1 is about 13 billion miles away and Voyager 2 slightly behind Voyager 1 at 10 billion miles away. On August 25 , 2012 Voyager 1 escaped from the Solar system and into the interstellar space. A first for Humanity!

Here is the exact real time Distance of Voyager 1 and Voyager 2.

A message to other life forms.

Voyager 1 , A spacecraft which has taken the reaches of humanity the farthest it has ever been. What message does it hold? If it encounters any other life forms? What if they are intelligent? Voyager 1 carries with it a golden record which contains sounds and images which portrays humanity.

And finally here are the images taken by Voyager 1 on its mission to drift away into oblivion.

Well there is a lot more about Voyager 1 and its all “Rocket science”. If you wish to know more, head over to the NASA website. Please leave your valuable comments and subscribe below if you liked the article.