By November this year, saying hello to a machine we built back in the 1970s will take a full day just to arrive.
NASA has calculated the exact moment. On November 18, 2026, at 2:16 AM Pacific Time, Voyager 1 will reach one light-day from Earth—about 16.1 billion miles (25.9 billion kilometers) away. A light-day is simply the distance light travels in 24 hours. Once Voyager crosses this milestone, any radio signal sent from Earth will take an entire day to reach the spacecraft, even though radio waves travel at the speed of light.
Launched on September 5, 1977, Voyager 1 has been traveling through space for nearly five decades at around 38,000 miles (61,000 km) per hour. After its historic flyby of Saturn in 1980, it continued its journey into the unknown and, in 2012, became the first human-made object to cross the heliopause and enter interstellar space.
This new milestone isn’t about crossing another boundary—it’s about the incredible scale of distance. If mission controllers send a command after Voyager reaches one light-day away, the spacecraft won’t receive it for 24 hours. If Voyager replies, that signal will take another 24 hours to return. Even a simple exchange becomes a two-day conversation.
Today, Voyager 1 is powered by a tiny radioisotope generator that grows weaker every year. To conserve energy, NASA has gradually turned off many of its scientific instruments, yet the spacecraft continues sending valuable data from interstellar space—making it one of humanity’s greatest engineering achievements.
It’s also worth noting that images like this are artist’s illustrations. Voyager’s cameras were switched off decades ago to save power, and no telescope can photograph the spacecraft from Earth at such an enormous distance.
Just think about it: something humans built nearly 50 years ago is now so far away that even light—the fastest thing in the Universe—needs an entire day just to catch up with it. That’s a powerful reminder of how unimaginably vast space truly is.
By November this year, saying hello to a machine we built back in the 1970s will take a full day just to arrive.
Can we send Liarbour there…it may risk soiling Space but, yeah
A bit like having a conversation with your teenagers.
I was still at school and I can remember it being launched. We did a project on it in math’s. Nobody ever thought it would go for so long, a truly incredible and awe inspiring achievement.
What, even more so than your Morning Reports? Never.
Don’t you just have to laugh at the “very original” Labour Party slogan for the 2026 Election, “Better Starts Now”. While I thought it was “Bitter Starts Now”, I am obviously wrong.
Anyway back to Labour’s Slogan. It just ain’t original, you see the Citizen Watch Company already used this for their global advertising back in 2014. Wonder if the dumbarses will have the arse sued off them for Plagiarism.
https://www.citizenwatch-global.com/baselworld/2014/pdf/release_en.pdf
Do you think Chloe will go over and tell on them?
I believe our local bunch got a bit further, at about time they were crossing the Bering straight and sailing around Antarctica…