The Farthest

Hi. (chirpy music) -

Announcer

Three, two, one, and we have lift off. The Voyager Project is one of the signature enterprises of the 20th century. -

Man

We launched in '77. We were only supposed to go to Jupiter and Saturn and that was dictated by congress. But the engineers of the jet propulsion laboratory built it to make sure, at least, we could last through Neptune. -

Man

All of the science that we had hoped to do, we know other spacecraft that we're gonna be going there. -

Woman

The planets had to be lined up in just the right way. And that only occurs once every 176 years. -

Man

Everyday you're wondering, did we build the spacecraft well enough, did we anticipate all the possible things that could go wrong. Voyager went to Jupiter and then Saturn. -

Man

We're thinking everything's okay and then something wasn't right. We do have a problem on board the Voyager 2 spacecraft. A frozen scan platform could be a fatal, crippling event. -

Man

That make sure we understand where we're headed. And it's just jammed. Sort of like a car stuck in the snow, we tried to go back and forth, back and forth and finally, it was freed up. The spacecraft flew through that system like a bullseye. In 2012, it sent back word, that it had reached the interstellar medium. Everything changed. Suddenly, this was a different journey we were on. Every second, it goes to another place where we have never been before. Sending out an emissary into the universe to be our eyes and our intelligence and report back home and tell us what you've seen. -

Woman

Are we alone? I'd like to know the answer to that question. -

Lady

It put us at the very limit of human experience. -

Man

If you'll like to leave a message to aliens, what would you like to say to them? -

Boy

Hello from the children of Planet Earth. This is where we live, on a blue dot. It's the stuff of myth, except it really happened.