NASA launched Voyager 2 on the 20th of August 1977 from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. This launch utilized a unique planetary alignment that occurred only once every few hundred years to allow the probe to visit Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
Voyager 2 uses three multihundred-watt radioisotope thermoelectric generators containing twenty-four pressed plutonium oxide spheres each. These units provided approximately 157 watts of electrical power each at launch and collectively supplied 470 watts before halving every 87.7 years.
A programming error misaligned the high gain antenna two degrees away from Earth on the 21st of July 2023 breaking communications. Engineers sent a high-power shout from Canberra station which reoriented the spacecraft toward Earth and resumed communications by August 1.
The Plasma Science instrument was turned off in October 2024 and the Low-Energy Charged Particles instrument terminated operations in 2025. The Planetary Radio Astronomy Experiment powered off in 2008 while the Digital Tape Recorder ended operations on the 30th of June 2002.
Both Voyager probes carry a gold-plated audio-visual disc showcasing diversity of life and culture on Earth directed by Carl Sagan and Timothy Ferris. The record features photos of Earth, sounds like whales and waves, music from cultures including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Chuck Berry, and greetings in fifty-five different languages.