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Voyager 2 was also to explore Jupiter and Saturn, but on a trajectory that would have the option of continuing on to Uranus and Neptune, or being redirected to Titan as a backup for Voyager 1. Upon successful completion of Voyager 1's objectives, Voyager 2 would get a mission extension to send the probe on towards Uranus and Neptune. [13]
In August and September, the two Voyager spacecraft to the outer planets were launched. Voyager 2, launched on 20 August, went on to fly past Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Voyager 1, which was launched on 5 September, flew past Jupiter and Saturn, with a planned flyby of Pluto being cancelled in favour of a closer flyby of Titan. [1
Voyager 1 was launched after Voyager 2, but along a shorter and faster trajectory that was designed to provide an optimal flyby of Saturn's moon Titan, [21] which was known to be quite large and to possess a dense atmosphere. This encounter sent Voyager 1 out of the plane of the ecliptic, ending its planetary science mission. [22]
The probe has left the 'bubble' surrounding our sun.
But turning off a piece of equipment on Voyager 2 or Voyager 1 — an identical spacecraft launched 16 days after its twin — is not ideal, NASA noted.
If the same failure had occurred during Voyager 2 ' s launch a few weeks earlier, the Centaur would have run out of propellant before the probe reached the correct trajectory. Jupiter was in a more favorable position vis-à-vis Earth during the launch of Voyager 1 than during the launch of Voyager 2. [39]
Voyager 2's visit to Uranus may have left us with the complete wrong impression of the ice giant for nearly 40 years, according to a new study. ... But long before that, Voyager 2 stopped by ...
Additionally, by launching Voyager 2 first, Voyager 1's launch could be re-targeted to perform the Grand Tour if Voyager 2 were lost in a launch failure. [6]: 155 An option to skip Voyager 1's Titan flyby and proceed from Saturn to Pluto was identified, though Titan was still considered the more interesting target, especially after images from ...