<Tr> <Th> Distance </Th> <Td> 6,490 km (4,030 mi) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> Flagship ← Voyager 2 Galileo → </Td> </Tr> <P> Voyager 1 is a space probe launched by NASA on September 5, 1977 . Part of the Voyager program to study the outer Solar System, Voyager 1 launched 16 days after its twin, Voyager 2 . Having operated for 40 years, 7 months and 4 days as of April 9, 2018, the spacecraft still communicates with the Deep Space Network to receive routine commands and return data . At a distance of 141 AU (2.11 × 10 km), approximately 21 billion kilometers (13 billion miles) from the Sun as of January 2, 2018, it is the farthest spacecraft and man - made object from Earth . </P> <P> The probe's objectives included flybys of Jupiter, Saturn and Saturn's large moon, Titan . While the spacecraft's course could have been altered to include a Pluto encounter by forgoing the Titan flyby, exploration of the moon, which was known to have a substantial atmosphere, took priority . It studied the weather, magnetic fields and rings of the two planets and was the first probe to provide detailed images of their moons . </P>

What does voyager 1 currently hold the record for