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ESA/NASA spacecraft

Ulysses (retired)

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Mission over on 2009-06-30, after flying over the Sun's poles: its last commands went up and the ground station then found no carrier, "confirming that the transmitter was switched off on the spacecraft" (ESA status log). An ESA-built craft on a joint ESA/NASA mission. It still circles the Sun, and nobody tracks it: its position since 2009-06-29 is JPL's prediction (Horizons).

Measured

Agency
ESA/NASA
Launched
1990-10-06
From the Earth today
1.95 AU (292 million km)
Axial antenna
7.5 m

How far, from the Earth

1.95 AU. To cross it:

  • Light16 minutes
  • Voyager 1's speed6.59 months
  • Driving at 100 km/h334 years

Voyager 1 at the speed it moved outward over the year to 2026-10-25 (JPL Horizons). Driving: nonstop, never refuelling.

Facts

  • JPL Horizons trajectory round the Sun: worst miss 22 km on the dates it was checked against (median 3 km); between those dates as much as about 67 km. Dates after the data was fetched are Horizons' predictions, which it revises as a mission flies.

Where this comes from

  • ESA/NASA
  • Spacecraft trajectories: JPL Horizons, NASA/JPL-Caltech; each mission's agency credited on its card.
  • 3D model: Ulysses model: NASA/Brian E. Kumanchik, NASA/Christian A. Lopez, NASA 3D Resources

Every catalogue Ouranos draws is credited on the credits page.