Overview
- NASA puts Voyager 1 at roughly 15.7 billion miles from Earth, with a current one-way signal time of about 23 hours 32 minutes 35 seconds.
- Mission projections estimate the probe will cross the one light-day threshold around November 15, 2026, at roughly 16.1 billion miles.
- Once at a light-day, each command will need about a day to arrive and another day for confirmation, pushing operations onto multi-day cycles.
- Controllers continue to maintain contact through the Deep Space Network as the spacecraft coasts outward at about 10.6 miles per second.
- Power from the probe’s radioisotope generators has fallen to about 230 watts, with NASA powering down systems to stretch operations past 2030 even as some reports foresee a shorter timeline.