On August 20, 1977, exactly two years after the launch of the Viking spacecraft to Mars, the first of the Voyagers—actually Voyager 2—was boosted into space at 10:29 a.m. EDT, less than five minutes after the launch window opened on the first day of the thirty-day launch period. Sixteen days later, at 8:56 a.m. EDT on Labor Day, September 5, 1977, Voyager 1 was hurled into space on a shorter, faster trajectory than its twin, zipping past the orbit of the Moon only ten hours after launch. Ultimately, Voyager 1 earned its title by overtaking Voyager 2 as both spacecraft journeyed through the asteroid belt, to arrive at Jupiter four months ahead of Voyager 2. The Voyagers lifted off from Launch Complex 41, Air Force Eastern Test Range, Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, atop the giant Titan III-E/Centaur rocket. It was the last time such a launch vehicle was scheduled to be used, as, according to plan, the Space Shuttle would take over in the 1980s. Thus the launching of the two Voyagers signified both an end and a beginning: a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to explore, in only 8½ years’ time, perhaps fifteen major bodies of the outer solar system. But long before even the first Voyager was to make its closest approach to Jupiter—in fact, even before Voyager 2 was off the launch pad—there were problems to overcome. In early August 1977, about three weeks before launch, failures in the attitude and articulation control subsystem (AACS) and the flight data subsystem (FDS), two of the spacecraft’s three main computer subsystems, prevented the VGR77-2 spacecraft, originally scheduled for launch on August 20, from becoming Voyager 2. Instead, the “spare” spacecraft VGR77-3 was substituted, becoming Voyager 2 upon launch August 20, and VGR77-2, after proper repairs, became Voyager 1. Minor problems continued right up to launch. The low energy charged particle instrument failed and had to be replaced, and as late as T minus five minutes there was a halt in the countdown to check on a stuck valve. Unlike a jinxed dress rehearsal, which is said to “assure” an opening-night success, Voyager 2’s prelaunch problems were a portent of difficulties to come. The Voyager 2 launch was witnessed by thousands as the spacecraft ascended gracefully into the blue Florida sky, accompanied by the deep-throated rumblings of its rocket, echoing for miles across the beaches and scrub forests of Cape Canaveral. The Titan-Centaur performance was nearly flawless, and Voyager 2 quickly achieved an accurate trajectory toward Jupiter. However, even while the engines were still firing, the spacecraft began to experience a baffling series of problems that would absorb the attention of hundreds of persons from Pasadena to Washington, D.C., for the next several weeks until they were brought under control.