NEPTUNE | 1989, original NASA large format chromogenic print, taken by Voyager 2.

 A rare opportunity to acquire this historic and original NASA large format chromogenic print of Neptune taken by Voyager 2 on August 20, 1989 at a distance of 4.4 million miles from the planet.

Voyager 2 gave humanity its first close-up of our solar system's eighth planet. Marking the end of the Voyager mission's Grand Tour of the solar system's four giant planets — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — that first was also a last: No other spacecraft has visited Neptune since.

 The Voyager probes launched in 1977. Together, they visited Saturn and Jupiter and their moons. But then, Voyager 2 had a unique opportunity.

“We had the opportunity to get a close flyby with Voyager 2,” said Suzanne Dodd, Voyager Project Manager. “Because of the planetary alignment when the probes launched in 1977, the four giant outer planets were all aligned on the same side of the sun, so we could go from one to the next to the next. It was a really great opportunity.”

This allowed the spacecraft to use a gravity assist from one planet to visit the next one, allowing the Voyager program to visit four planets in four years. This alignment only occurs once every 176 years.

Provenance: This original chromogenic print was acquired directly from a space photography collector based in France.

The print is in fine condition with numbering on the front with a description on the verso via label. Size: 40.6 x 40.6cm with margins.

Printed by NASA in August 1989.