WASHINGTON – “Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Voyager 1. Her continuing mission is to boldly go where no human has gone before.”
To “Star Trek” fans these words will have a familiar ring. But instead of “Enterprise,” we’re talking about starship Voyager 1. That, my dear reader, is a historic substitution.
NASA officially announced Thursday, Sept. 12 that the 36-year-old Voyager 1 spacecraft had crossed into interstellar space on August 25, 2012. The delay in the announcement was due to the scientific process taking its time to gather, check and re-check data. I have little doubt that historians of science will be studying this watershed moment of human history in great detail.
This spaceflight first takes its place right next to Apollo 11’s landing on the Moon in terms of historical significance, technical achievement and in my opinion, “wow factor.” For Voyager 1 to operate in deep space for all of these years using 1960
