Which NASA spacecraft flew by Saturn in November 1980?
Answer
Voyager 1
Answer
Voyager 1
Which NASA spacecraft flew by Saturn in November 1980? Voyager 1 flew past Saturn on November 12, 1980.
Voyager 1 launched from Cape Canaveral on September 5, 1977, beginning a mission to study the outer planets. It reached Jupiter in March 1979 and then used the giant planet's gravity to help accelerate toward Saturn. At Saturn, it also passed close to Titan, the planet's largest moon.
The encounter produced detailed images and measurements of Saturn's atmosphere, magnetic environment, rings, and moons. NASA chose a close Titan flyby for Voyager 1, sending it onto a trajectory that left the spacecraft traveling northward out of the plane of the planets. Voyager 2 visited Saturn shortly afterward, but its later trajectory allowed it to continue on to Uranus and Neptune.
A common mix-up is confusing the two Voyager spacecraft: Voyager 1 reached Saturn first, while Voyager 2 made its Saturn encounter in August 1981. Voyager 1 later became the first spacecraft to enter interstellar space, crossing the heliopause in 2012.
Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Sept. 2026