VOYAGER

Voyager spacecraft. in space exploration, either of a pair of unmanned U.S. interplanetary probes launched to observe and to transmit to Earth information about the outer planetary system. This animation shows the 12-year paths of Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, a pair of spacecraft designed to 1/4 Voyager 1, launched on Sept. 5, 1977, flew by Jupiter in March 1979 and reached Saturn in November 1980. It then took up a trajectory to lead it out of the solar system. Voyager 2, launched on Aug. 20, 1977, traveled more slowly than its partner. It sped by Jupiter on July 9, 1979, passed Saturn on Aug. 25, 1981, and flew past Uranus on Jan. 24, 1986. It encountered Neptune on Aug. 24, 1989. Io, one of Jupiter's satellites, with Jupiter in the background. The cloud bands of Jupiter provide 1/4 Data and photographs transmitted by the Voyager probes revealed previously unknown details about each of the giant planets and their moons. For example, closeup images from the spacecraft uncovered a variety of cloud forms around Jupiter and volcanic activity on Io, one of its so-called Galilean satellites. Saturn was found to have a system of several thousand "ringlets" in addition to its known rings, and Uranus proved to have 10 additional moons and a substantial magnetic field. The flyby of Neptune led to the discovery of three rings and six hitherto unknown satellites around the planet as well as a magnetic field strong enough to trap energetic protons and electrons of the solar wind in a zone similar to the Earth's Van Allen radiation belts. The Voyager spacecraft will continue their journeys into deep space and travel beyond the outer edge of the solar system. Voyager 2 is expected to remain operable until about the year 2020, periodically transmitting data on the heliopause-the farthest reach of the Sun's magnetosphere. in aeronautics, American experimental aircraft that in 1986 became the first airplane to fly around the world without stops or refueling. Piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, the craft took off on December 14 from Edwards Air Force Base, 60 miles (100 km) northeast of Los Angeles, and landed at that same base 9 days later after completing a course of 25,012 miles (40,251 km) around the world. The Voyager easily surpassed the previous record for unbroken, straight-line flight of 12,532 miles (20,167 km) that had been set in 1962. The Voyager made its round-the-world journey cruising at an average speed of about 116 miles per hour (186 km per hour). Designed by Burt Rutan, the Voyager had its main wing (spanning 111 feet ) at the plane's rear and had a horizontal stabilizer wing at the plane's nose. The craft's extremely light but strong body was made of layered pieces of carbon-fibre tape and epoxy-saturated paper that were glued together using epoxy resin. At the start of the journey, the fuselage, wings, and other frame elements were entirely filled with a quantity of fuel that weighed four times as much as the airplane's 1,860-pound (840-kilogram) weight; all but a few gallons of fuel was used up during the flight.