| MPI/ Stringer via Getty Images |  | August 20, 1977 | NASA has launched more than 250 robotic spacecraft since its founding, but few have as impressive a resumé as Voyager 2. Launched on August 20, 1977, Voyager 2 has intersected with every outer planet in our solar system, making it the greatest robotic explorer in human history. It became the first — and only — spacecraft to explore all four Giant planets, the first to fly by Uranus (and discover 10 of its moons), and the first to zip past Neptune (discovering another 5 moons and four rings). It also became the second spacecraft to enter interstellar space, the little-known area of deep space that lies between stars.
But Voyager 2 isn't just an explorer, it's also an ambassador. On board is a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk whose contents, selected by astronomer Carl Sagan, feature images, natural sounds, greetings in 55 different languages, and more — a representation of life on Earth distilled to a single disk. Forty years on, Voyager 2 continues to send data back to NASA's Deep Space Network. In 2025 those transmissions will end, but its mission never will. In 296,000 years, Voyager 2 will pass within 5 light-years of Sirius, the brightest star in our sky, as it travels on as humanity's ambassador to the stars.
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