Voyager 2

Voyager 2 is NASA's only spacecraft to have examined all four giant planets at close range. Launched in August 1977, it used successive gravity assists to visit Jupiter in 1979, Saturn in 1981, Uranus in 1986, and Neptune in 1989. These encounters surveyed atmospheres, rings, moons, and magnetic environments, extending direct spacecraft exploration to the two ice giants. The Uranus and Neptune flybys revealed previously unknown rings and moons and supplied the first close views of worlds including Miranda and Triton. After Neptune, Voyager 2 continued outward on the Voyager Interstellar Mission, investigating the solar wind's distant boundary and the surrounding environment. It crossed the heliopause in 2018 and remains on an extended mission in interstellar space, providing a second path of measurements to compare with Voyager 1.