Voyager 1 Celebrates 48 Years in Space; Pasadena’s JPL Marks Historic Milestone

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena is celebrating the 48th anniversary of Voyager 1’s launch, commemorating nearly five decades of pioneering interstellar exploration led from Southern California.

Launched on Sept. 5, 1977, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, Voyager 1 was originally tasked with studying Jupiter and Saturn. Today, it remains the most distant human-made object in space, traveling about 15 billion miles (25 billion kilometers) from Earth — and it’s still revealing secrets from the space between the stars, according to NASA.

Though the spacecraft lifted off from Florida, its design, engineering, and mission operations have been based at JPL, a federally funded research and development center managed by Caltech in Pasadena. NASA continues to list JPL in Pasadena as the official media contact for the Voyager mission, underscoring the city’s central role in the spacecraft’s enduring journey.

NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena are celebrating Voyager 1’s anniversary this month, an event spotlighted in NASA and JPL statements, reaffirming the community’s connection to the mission. Local media coverage has consistently drawn attention to Pasadena’s leadership in space science, with Voyager’s longevity viewed as a reflection of the city’s scientific legacy.

Even NASA’s own communications bring into focus the Pasadena connection. A Voyager mission blog dated Sept. 4 lists its media contact as “Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.,” reinforcing that JPL remains the hub for operating the Voyager probes. As the source document notes, “the brains of the mission — the spacecraft construction and ongoing science operations — have been based in Pasadena.”

Built and managed by JPL, the spacecraft has far exceeded its original mission timeline and remains a symbol of human curiosity and scientific ambition.