The five spacecraft on escape trajectories out of the Solar System, ranked by how far they now sit from the Sun.
Quick answer: 1. Voyager 1, 2. Voyager 2, 3. Pioneer 10, 4. Pioneer 11, 5. New Horizons.
Only five human-made objects are currently coasting outward on trajectories that will carry them beyond the Solar System, and each is now tens of billions of kilometers from home. This list ranks them by their current distance from the Sun in astronomical units (AU) — one AU being the average Earth-Sun distance of about 150 million km. Leading the pack is Voyager 1, the most distant human-made object ever built, followed by its twin Voyager 2 and the two Pioneers that blazed the trail decades earlier. At these ranges, heliocentric distance is effectively the same as distance from Earth to within about one AU, so this is the cleanest, primary-sourced way to answer "how far has each spacecraft gone?"
The most distant human-made object ever, Voyager 1 has been pulling away from everything else since it overtook Pioneer 10 in 1998. Launched in 1977 and still active, it is the fastest of the fleet at 16.9 km/s and on November 18, 2026 becomes the first object a full light-day from Earth.
Voyager 1's twin and the only spacecraft to have flown by all four giant planets, Voyager 2 overtook Pioneer 10 in mid-2023 to claim second place. It remains active, sending data back from interstellar space.
The first spacecraft to cross the asteroid belt and fly by Jupiter, Pioneer 10 held the most-distant-object record until Voyager 1 passed it in February 1998. Its last signal was received in January 2003, and it now coasts outward as a derelict.
The first spacecraft to fly by Saturn, Pioneer 11 lost contact in 1995 and is now derelict on an escape trajectory. It trails its sibling Pioneer 10 as the fourth-most-distant human-made object.
The newest of the five, New Horizons explored Pluto in 2015 and the Kuiper Belt object Arrokoth in 2019. Still active, it got less total energy from gravity assists than the earlier probes — a single Jupiter flyby rather than a giant-planet slingshot chain — so its Sun-relative speed is lower and it will never overtake the Pioneers or Voyagers, remaining the nearest of the escapees.
| # | Name | launched | speed_km_s | status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Voyager 1 | September 5, 1977 | 16.9 | Active |
| 2 | Voyager 2 | August 20, 1977 | 15.2 | Active |
| 3 | Pioneer 10 | March 2, 1972 | 11.8 | Derelict |
| 4 | Pioneer 11 | April 6, 1973 | 11.1 | Derelict |
| 5 | New Horizons | January 19, 2006 | 13.5 | Active |
Spacecraft are ranked by their current distance from the Sun measured in astronomical units (AU), using the tabulated values for artificial objects leaving the Solar System as of May 11, 2026 (Wikipedia's continuously updated table, sourced from JPL Horizons ephemerides), cross-checked against NASA mission pages. Inclusion is limited to the five human-made spacecraft on confirmed Solar System escape trajectories; upper stages and other jettisoned hardware are excluded. Heliocentric distance is used as the stable primary measure because at these ranges it equals distance from Earth to within about one AU (Earth's own orbital radius). Rank 1 is the most distant. Note that per its own mission page Voyager 1's distance from Earth (172.59 AU as of March 2026) differs slightly from its heliocentric distance; the ranking uses the common distance-from-the-Sun basis for all five so the order is reproducible.
Voyager 1. As of March 2026 it was about 172.59 AU (roughly 25.8 billion km) from Earth, and it continues to set the record every day. On November 18, 2026 it becomes the first human-made object a full light-day from Earth.
One AU is the average distance between the Earth and the Sun, about 150 million kilometers (93 million miles). So Voyager 1 at roughly 169 AU from the Sun is about 169 times farther out than Earth is.
Speed. Voyager 1 leaves the Solar System at about 16.9 km/s versus roughly 11-12 km/s for the Pioneers, thanks to gravity assists from the giant planets. It launched five years after Pioneer 10 but overtook it in February 1998 and has led ever since.
No. New Horizons is on a Solar System escape trajectory but is moving more slowly than the earlier probes relative to the Sun, so it will never catch up to the Pioneers or Voyagers ahead of it.