Signs point to interstellar space for Voyager 1 probe

Source: Spaceflight Now

More than 35 years after launching from Earth and now at the frontier of the solar system, NASA's Voyager 1 probe may be tasting interstellar space for the first time, according to scientists analyzing fresh data from the distant explorer.

Launched in September 1977 to fly past Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager 1 is now cruising 11.3 billion miles away and opening its distance by 300 million miles each year.

It takes 17 hours for a radio signal to travel between Earth and Voyager 1. Its twin explorer - Voyager 2 - is lagging slightly behind at a distance of 9.2 billion miles from Earth.

The nuclear-powered probe's computers have about 68 kilobytes of memory. An 8-gigabyte iPod Nano holds more than 100,000 times as much data.

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Mission to the Edge of Space

Mission dress rehearsal successfully completed. Weather looks favorable for a launch Tuesday Oct. 9.

UPDATE: Mission Update: Cold front pushes the launch to Tuesday Oct 9th. We'll send another update as soon as we get the green light for launch.

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Falcon 9 Rocket Poised for Launch

07 October 2012, 03:25 PM EDT

SpaceX has hoisted the Falcon 9 rocket to launch today's Dragon flight to the space station into liftoff position ahead of tonight's planned blastoff at 8:35 p.m. EDT (0035 Monday GMT).

• You can watch the launch live below beginning at 7 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT)

Curiosity Rover to Scoop Up 1st Mars Samples This Weekend

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity will scoop up its first batch of Martian soil samples this weekend, scientists announced today (Oct. 4).
The 1-ton Curiosity rover arrived at a sandy patch called "Rocknest" on Wednesday (Oct. 3). Mission scientists have deemed it a good spot for the robot's maiden scooping activities, which should begin Saturday (Oct. 6), if all goes according to plan.

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