JPL and the Space Age: The Footsteps of Voyager (NASA Documentary)

Illustration of the Voyager spacecraft overlaid on a picture of Neptune that was taken by Voyager 2 less than five days before the probe’s closest approach of the planet on August 25, 1989. The picture shows the “Great Dark Spot” — a storm in Neptune’s atmosphere — and the bright, light-blue smudge of clouds that accompanies the storm. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory would be among the first to demonstrate that NASA’s new space shuttle could be used to conduct science experiments about our own planet from the vantage of space. But for missions destined for targets beyond Earth orbit the shuttle posed new engineering challenges.

One of them was Galileo, JPL’s flagship mission to Jupiter, whose route toward the launch pad would be full of unexpected twists and turns.

At the same time, the legendary Voyager 2 was in the midst of its triumphant Grand Tour through the outer planets. Drawing on rare film footage and the memories of the engineers and scientists who were there, this 60-minute documentary brings alive again the dramatic experiences of these first-ever encounters at Uranus and Neptune.

As scientist Carl Sagan declares in the film, those who designed, built, and operated Voyager are “heroes of human accomplishment. Their deeds will be remembered in the history books.”

While the legendary Voyager 2 was in the midst of its triumphant Grand Tour through the outer planets, the space shuttle era was underway on Earth. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory would be among the first to demonstrate how NASA’s new shuttle could be used to conduct science experiments about our own planet from the vantage of space. But for launching missions to targets beyond Earth orbit, the shuttle posed engineering challenges. One mission that launched from the shuttle was Galileo, JPL’s flagship mission to Jupiter, and its route to the launch pad would be full of unexpected twists and turns.

Drawing on rare film footage as well as the memories of the engineers and scientists who were there, “The Footsteps of Voyager” recounts the dramatic experiences of these first-ever encounters at Uranus and Neptune and the efforts to deploy Galileo, a mission that would become the first to orbit an outer planet.

JPL and the Space Age Video Series