“Space the final frontier . . . to boldly go where no man has gone before.”

For me, those are the most remembered words from the opening monologue of Star Trek, perhaps the most famous introduction in the history of television.

On September 8, 1966, 46 years ago, Star Trek, The Original Series or “TOS,” debuted with William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk. Years later, my young son referred to the shows on rerun simply as “The Captain.” Star Trek and The Captain launched us into space, and we’ve been traveling “out” ever since.

On September 5, 1977, 35 years ago, Voyager 1 launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Today, Voyager 1 is the longest-operating spacecraft in history and the most distant from the Earth, and it is still heading “out.”

Voyager 1 is a gangly apparatus that weighs about as much as a Volkswagen. It looks somewhat like a transformer with the pull cord for its nuclear-powered lawnmower engine dangling out the back as its flies through space at 38,000 miles per hour (61,200 kilometers per hour). That’s fast for a Volkswagen, even a Volkswagen transformer, but space is a big place – it is “the final frontier.”

The original mission was to tour Jupiter and Saturn and send back picture postcards, which Voyager 1 did to the delight of an adoring audience back on Earth: “Did you see the card from Voyager? It is so cute.” Concerned about the growing teenage fan club and their increasing demands, Voyager 1 then used Saturn as a gravitational slingshot to catapult itself toward the edge of our Solar System and farther away from the giggles and flashing lashes.

That’s where it is right now – way out there on the very edge of the bubble that defines the region of our Sun and the planets that are captured by its gravity and rotate obediently around its center, about as far away as it can get and still call it “home.” A short message takes nearly 17 hours to reach us here on the Earth, which is a long time between “How are you?” and “Fine.”

Still, Voyager 1 was always a loner – it’s the way he was built. Besides, he had to turn off the cameras to save energy, so that teenage fan club has largely disbanded or become grandmothers. These days, a few part-time researchers stop by to check his data messages. From the changed tone of the last few communications, those gray-haired scientists tottered off smiling and mumbling, “He’s almost there.”

By today, who knows, he may have crossed over and be in interstellar space, the space between the stars, the space “where no man has gone before.”

We wish you well little guy and we are proud of you,

Grandpa Jim