40 Years After They Were Launched, The Voyager Golden Records are Now Available to Non-Extraterrestrials

When the two Voyager spacecraft were launched on their grand tour of the solar system, they each left Earth with a phonograph record encoded with the sounds and pictures of what they left behind. The Golden Records–called that because they are made of gold, the most durable thing in the universe for this purpose–will not only outlive those who made them but probably the Sun as well.

Think about that. Unless either craft is intercepted by something out there (unlikely but not impossible), these records will float through space until the heat death of the universe.

Sitting untouched in a warehouse for forty years were the master tapes that went into pressing those records. And for the first time ever, humans can have their own Golden Records. It’s the long-awaited vinyl reissue.

Yes, there was a CD in 1992 and the audio has been available on SoundCloud for a couple of years, but there’s nothing like having something that looks like what’s floating beyond the heliosphere.

You can now order your own Golden Records for $98 USD. Hear some of the remastered audio below.