New Delhi, Jan. 14 -- NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft will approach a historic milestone nearly five decades after its launch, underscoring humanity's longest-running deep-space mission.

By November 2026, Voyager 1 is expected to become the first human-made object to reach a distance of one light-day from Earth - about 16 billion miles away. At that range, radio signals travelling at the speed of light will take a full 24 hours to reach the spacecraft, and another 24 hours for a response.

"If I send a command and say, 'good morning, Voyager 1,' at 8 a.m. on a Monday, I will receive Voyager 1's response on Wednesday morning at around 8 a.m.," said Suzy Dodd, Voyager project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

As Voyager 1 ventures ...