Today’s hidden fact · Sunday, August 9, 2026

Voyager Is the Farthest Human Object Ever — and It Still Calls Home Daily

Voyager 1 is over 24 billion km away, so far its radio signal takes 22+ hours to arrive, sent by a transmitter weaker than a refrigerator bulb.

Read the full fact Scroll to the edge of the universe →

74 hidden facts to explore

15 launches on the horizon

6 asteroids passing this week

Daily updates, with no humans involved

Right now in space

The Space Station LIVE

A football-field-sized lab, falling around Earth at 8 km every second.

Speed: —
Altitude: —
Position: —

Contacting the tracking station…

Humans off Earth right now

ISS Oleg Kononenko · Nikolai Chub · Tracy Caldwell Dyson · Matthew Dominick · Michael Barratt · Jeanette Epps · Alexander Grebenkin · Butch Wilmore · Sunita Williams

Tiangong Li Guangsu · Li Cong · Ye Guangfu

Next rocket leaves in

–days

–hrs

–min

–sec

Checking the launch schedule…

Closest space rock this week

2018 SP2

Wednesday, Sep 30 · passes 1,927,097 km away — 5.0× the Moon's distance · ~47 m wide · 51,337 km/h

The cosmos right now

Live from NASA and the world's launch pads — refreshed every morning.

NASA Picture of the Day

Globular Cluster Omega Centauri

Globular star cluster Omega Centauri packs about 10 million stars much older than the Sun into a volume some 150 light-years in diameter. Also known as NGC 5139, at a distance of 15,000 light-years it's the largest and brightest of 200 or so known globular clu…

Upcoming Rocket Launches

Electron | Owlright, Owlright, Owlright (StriX Launch 13)
Sep 26, 00:26 UTC · Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand
Falcon 9 Block 5 | USSF-385
Sep 26, 11:56 UTC · SpaceX
Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA
Starship | Starlink Group 31-1 (Starship Flight 14)
Sep 28, 12:15 UTC · SpaceX
SpaceX Starbase, TX, USA
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Crew-13
Oct 1, 15:10 UTC · SpaceX
Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Transporter 18 (Dedicated SSO Rideshare)
Oct 1, 18:18 UTC · SpaceX
Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA
Falcon Heavy | NROL-97
Oct 2, 03:53 UTC · SpaceX
Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA
SR75 | Flight 2
Oct 5, 00:00 UTC · HyImpulse
SaxaVord Spaceport
Ariane 64 Block 2 | Amazon Leo (LE-04)
Oct 7, 00:00 UTC · Arianespace
Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana
Nuri | NeonSat-2 to 6
Oct 7, 03:23 UTC · Korea Aerospace Research Institute
Naro Space Center, South Korea
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 15-25
Oct 10, 16:00 UTC · SpaceX
Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA
GSLV Mk II | IRNSS-1L (NVS-03)
Oct 15, 00:00 UTC · Indian Space Research Organization
Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India
H3-24 | Martian Moon eXplorer (MMX)
Oct 19, 19:41 UTC · Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
Tanegashima Space Center, Japan
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Bandwagon 5 (Dedicated Mid-Inclination Rideshare)
Oct 31, 00:00 UTC · SpaceX
Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Dragon CRS-2 SpX-35
Oct 31, 00:00 UTC · SpaceX
Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA
Falcon 9 Block 5 | SDA Tranche 1 Transport Layer A
Oct 31, 00:00 UTC · SpaceX
Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

Asteroids Passing Earth This Week

2018 SP2
2026-09-30 · misses us by 1,927,097 km · ~47 m wide · 51,337 km/h
138971 2001 CB21watched by NASA
2026-09-29 · misses us by 8,096,702 km · ~842 m wide · 36,822 km/h
2013 HO11
2026-10-02 · misses us by 9,705,469 km · ~105 m wide · 27,282 km/h
2016 LY8
2026-09-25 · misses us by 13,142,327 km · ~107 m wide · 26,214 km/h
2008 ST
2026-09-26 · misses us by 14,878,930 km · ~16 m wide · 22,191 km/h
523934 1998 FF14watched by NASA
2026-09-28 · misses us by 15,393,501 km · ~325 m wide · 84,523 km/h

Distances look huge — the Moon is 384,400 km away. Anything under a few million km counts as a close shave in space terms.