Voyager 2 mission director Dick Laeser looks at a platform on the end of a boom on a mock-up of the Voyager spacecraft during a news briefing at the Jet Propulsion Lab in 1981. ( Lennox McLendon / The Associated Press )CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA.—Forty years after blasting off, Earth’s most distant ambassadors — the twin Voyager spacecraft — are carrying sounds and music of our planet ever deeper into the cosmos. This Sunday marks the 40th anniversary of NASA’s launch of Voyager 2, now almost 18 billion kilometres distant. The cover of the 12-inch gold-plated copper disk that both Voyager spacecraft carry. NASA estimated the records would last 1 billion to 3 billion years or more — likely outliving human civilization.

Source: thestar August 18, 2017 16:51 UTC