September 5

What happened on September 5 in aviation and space history.

• September 5, 1977

  Launch of Voyager 1

  Space launch — NASA launched the Voyager 1 probe on 5 September 1977 as part of the Voyager programme, to study the outer Solar System and the interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere. It lifted off 16 days after its twin, Voyager 2. It still communicates through NASA's Deep Space Network and is the most distant human-made object from Earth, at 172.59 astronomical units as of March 2026.