The Grand Tour

Original artworks from NASA

NASA's Voyager mission took advantage of a once-every-175-years alignment of the outer planets for a grand tour of the solar system. The twin spacecraft revealed details about Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune - using each planet's gravity to send them on to the next destination. Voyager set the stage for some ambitious orbiter missions as Galileo to Jupiter and Cassini to Saturn. Today both Voyager spacecraft continue to return valuable science from the far reaches of our solar system.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an autonomous organization of the United States Federal Government liable for the regular citizen space program and aeronautics and space research. NASA was set up in 1958, succeeding the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). Since its foundation, most US space investigation endeavours have been driven by NASA, including the Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station, and the Space Shuttle.