Launched in 1977, NASA's Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes embarked on a grand tour of the outer solar system, exploiting a rare planetary alignment to fly past Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. They returned the first detailed images of the outer planets and their moons, revealing landscapes of unearthly beauty. Voyager 1 has since become the most distant human-made object, inspiring poets to reflect on the scale of space and humanity's tiny place within it.

The Voyager Grand Tour in 1977 provided iconic images and data that shaped late 20th-century cosmic journey poetry. Poets like Adrienne Rich used the exploration of space as a metaphor for personal and collective journeys, expanding the boundaries of poetic expression.