Local : Voyager ‘Smack Dab’ on Course

Scientists readied a final set of computer commands for transmission to Voyager 2 today as the spacecraft, “smack dab” on course for Neptune, sailed smoothly toward Thursday’s historic rendezvous.

Voyager project scientist Edward Stone said that the spacecraft’s instruments are picking up increasingly strong radio emissions from the planet, a sure sign that Neptune has a magnetic field, and that Voyager may sail into the planet’s “magnetosphere” late today or early Thursday.

Navigation data showed Voyager will sail 3,000 miles over the cloud tops of Neptune at 8:56 p.m. Thursday, within 22 miles of its aim point and 40 miles better than expected--a remarkable feat of celestial navigation given the spacecraft has flown 4.4 billion miles since launch in 1977.