In 1977 NASA launched two spacecraft, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. Their primary mission was to collect data in interstellar space, but they had enough power to continue on to the end of our solar system. Now, 35 years later, they appear to be getting very close. When they escape, it will be the first time in history a man-made object has left our solar system. It will, in fact, be the first time a man-made object has left any star.

I have an agreement with a friend that we’ll call each other and celebrate over the phone when it happens. I might even throw a party.

I learned about all this, incidentally, via a RadioLab podcast. Todd Henry recommend RadioLab to me a while back, and I just love their work. Highly recommended.

But what about those 35 years? Has Voyager’s journey up until this highly anticipated moment been a waste? Far from it.

In the seventies and eighties the Voyager spacecraft sent back the first close-up pictures we had ever seen of the planets. For the first time we saw Saturn’s rings up close. We saw that Neptune is the most beautiful shade of blue.

But it gets better. In 1990 NASA was about to power down the spacecrafts’ photographic function to conserve energy, but scientist Carl Sagan encouraged them to take one last picture. He asked NASA to turn one of the Voyagers back to Earth and take one last picture. The result is the famous “Pale Blue Dot” photo, which I’ll include here.

Courtesy of NASA

Earth is that small bit of blue about halfway down on the right. Carl Sagan pointed and said, “Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. . . . Every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there–on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. . . . Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.”

This picture was never part of Voyager’s mission. It happened because a scientist had the foresight, the curiosity, and the verve to ask NASA to take it. Sagan was open to the journey.

You probably have a destination in mind. You want to write a book or an article. You want to publish your thoughts for all the world to read. But don’t forget about the journey. Enjoy it. You never know what you might discover along the way.

What are some discoveries you’ve made along the way?