In its first phase mission, Voyager 1 makes a planetary reconnaissance flyby of Jupiter on March 5, 1979, and of Saturn on November 12, 1980. Voyager 2 heads toward Jupiter on July 9, 1979, and toward Saturn on August 25, 1981.

Those successes lead NASA engineers to ascertain that Voyager 2 should be capable of flight to Uranus with all its instruments in working order -- a mission it accomplished on January 24, 1986, providing direct photos of Uranus's moons and magnetic fields.

Meanwhile, Voyager 1 in late 1980 also launches on a space flight out of the solar system, outdistancing Voyager 2 toward the heliopause -- the boundary that separates Earth's solar system from interstellar space.

After a flyby of Neptune on August 25, 1989, Voyager 2 also leaves the solar system.

On February 17, 1998, Voyager 1 passes the Pioneer 10 probe to become the most distant object from Earth ever sent into space.

The total cost of the Voyager 1 and 2 missions, including launch and monitoring, is around 895 million dollars, which includes an additional 30 million dollars given by NASA in 1990.

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