Voyager 1 has been travelling non-stop since 1977, faster than a speeding bullet every second of every day, and it has not yet reached the distance of a single light-year from Earth

Key Points:

• Voyager 1, launched in 1977, is the fastest and most distant human-made object, traveling at about 17 kilometers per second and currently located roughly 25 billion kilometers from the Sun.
• Despite its speed and longevity, Voyager 1 has only covered about one three-hundredth of a light-year, highlighting the vast scale of interstellar distances.
• In November 2026, Voyager 1 is expected to become the first human-made object to reach a distance of one light-day from Earth, meaning radio signals will take a full day to travel to it and back.
• The spacecraft's power source, fueled by decaying plutonium, is steadily diminishing, leading NASA engineers to shut down instruments progressively to conserve energy; only two science instruments remain operational as of mid-2026.
• Voyager 1 will eventually lose all power and cease communications but will continue coasting silently through interstellar space for thousands of years, passing near the star Gliese 445 in about 40,000 years.