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This year the world is observing golden jubilee celebrations to commemorate man's first outing in the space. Sputnik 1, the Russian spacecraft successfully outdone the acting gravitational forces of this planet. It was a maiden experience when a manmade object encroached out of bounds. Therefore October 4, 1957, was one of few extra special days in the history of this planet.

Likewise on August 15, 2006, man achieved some phenomenal milestone in his quest to explore this universe. On Wednesday, August 16, 2006, from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology, it was announced "Voyager 1, already the most distant human-made object in the cosmos, reaches 100 astronomical units from the sun on Tuesday, August 15 at 5:13 p.m. Eastern time (2:13 p.m. Pacific time). That means the spacecraft, which launched nearly three decades ago, will be 100 times more distant from the sun than Earth is."

Astronomical unit is the unit of length, used in measuring astronomical distances within the solar system, which equals to the mean distance from Earth to the sun that is approximately 150 million kilometres (93 million miles). Hundred astronomical units signifies that Voyager 1 was 15 billion kilometres (9.3 billion miles) from the sun on that specific moment.

Dr Edward C Stone, Professor of Physics at the California Institute of Technology, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, stated, "these are just the most recent of many surprises Voyager has revealed in its 28-year journey of discovery. They tell us that the interaction of our sun with the surrounding interstellar matter from other stars is more dynamic and complex than we had imagined, and that there is more yet to be learned as Voyager begins the final leg of its race to the edge of interstellar space."

Voyager 1 was one of a pair of spaceships launched for the purposes of exploration of the planets of the outer solar system and the investigation of interplanetary environment. Originally it was planned as a Grand Tour of the outer planets, including dual launches to Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto, besides Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune.

The unmanned spacecraft had laid down assignments, and they were to achieve subsequent information at each interval. Investigation of the circulation, dynamics, structure, and composition of the planet's atmosphere was a major job. The morphology, geology, and physical state of the satellites of the planet were to be characterised.

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