Thirty-five years ago today, Voyager leapt from this small blue marble atop a fiery column to touch the heavens. And now, poised at the cusp of the solar system (poetically referred to as the heliosphere), and about to enter true interstellar space, she offers an opportunity to reflect on the last 35 years.
Not to reflect politically, or culturally, or even in any specific way. Voyager 1 and her sister Voyager 2 represent a time when humanity was still actively striving to understand the universe around it, still reaching out to grasp the stars.
We looked into the abyss, and when it looked back, we flinched.
And now she pushes ever onward, a last ambassador of that brave time, lost in the depths of space and valiantly forging on. It makes me a bit sad, really.
Long may you run, Voyager 1.