In 1980, the U.S. spacecraft Voyager I sent back the first close-up pictures of the planet Saturn.

CNN: Wednesday,

If, as expected, Voyager I does cross the heliopause and passes into uncharted deep space, it may actually outlive its home planet.

BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | Voyager 'at edge of Solar System'

Louis Lanzerotti of Bell Laboratories and the New Jersey Institute of Technology said his team had found "compelling argument" that Voyager I was "in the vicinity of the termination shock" and had even passed briefly into the heliopause.

BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | Voyager 'at edge of Solar System'