Which spacecraft flew by Saturn in August 1981?

Voyager 2 flew by Saturn in August 1981. Its closest approach occurred on August 26, after the spacecraft began its Saturn encounter by imaging the system’s moons several days earlier.

Voyager 2 was launched by NASA in 1977 and first visited Jupiter in July 1979. At Saturn, it followed Voyager 1’s November 1980 encounter but took a different trajectory, allowing scientists to examine additional moons and obtain new views of the rings. The spacecraft passed about 101,000 kilometers from Saturn’s cloud tops.

The flyby was also a crucial navigation step. Saturn’s gravity bent Voyager 2’s path toward Uranus, which it reached in 1986, and then Neptune in 1989. A common mix-up is choosing Voyager 1 because it visited Saturn first; Voyager 1 did so in 1980, while the August 1981 Saturn flyby belongs to Voyager 2.