19771776 Club
Second stage quits early; Centaur burns to the last 3.4 seconds of fuel, and Voyager 1 flies on
Launched sixteen days after its twin, Voyager 1 was set on a faster path that would put it at Jupiter and Saturn first.
Sixteen days after Voyager 2 left Earth on a slower path, NASA sent its twin up from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral on September 5, 1977, aboard a Titan IIIE rocket. The Titan's second stage shut down early, leaving 1,200 pounds of propellant unburned. The Centaur upper stage's computers ordered an extended burn to make up the difference, cutting off with just 3.4 seconds of fuel left. Voyager 1 reached orbit anyway, on a trajectory that would carry it past Jupiter and Saturn ahead of the probe launched before it…
