Voyager 2 became the first spacecraft to visit Uranus during its 1986 flyby.
NASA launched Voyager 2 on 20 August 1977, initially on a mission to study Jupiter and Saturn. A rare alignment of the outer planets allowed mission planners to use gravity assists and extend the spacecraft’s journey to Uranus and Neptune.
Voyager 2 reached Uranus on 24 January 1986, passing about 81,500 kilometers above the planet’s cloud tops. It discovered new moons and rings, examined Uranus’s unusual magnetic field, and provided the first close-up images of the planet and its system.
Voyager 1 did not visit Uranus because its trajectory after Saturn was directed toward Titan and then interstellar space. Voyager 2 remains the only spacecraft to have flown past Uranus and Neptune, making its planetary tour unique in exploration history.