How fast are the Voyager spacecrafts travelling?

NASA's Voyage probes are speeding their way around the Solar System.


Asked by: Anonymous

Launched in 1977, NASA’s two Voyager probes surveyed Jupiter and Saturn, with Voyager 2 also visiting Uranus and Neptune before heading out of the Solar System. Voyager 1 has since become the fastest and most distant man-made object in the Universe, travelling at around 61,500km/h at a distance of 17.6 billion km from the Earth. Perhaps most incredible of all, NASA is still in communication with it, despite radio signals taking 16 hours to reach it.

Subscribe to BBC Focus magazine for fascinating new Q&As every month and follow @sciencefocusQA on Twitter for your daily dose of fun science facts.