Throughout the long history of mankind, we have been exploring the mysteries of the universe. Starting from the earth, our gaze gradually extends outward, looking for unknown existence and possible life. Among them, the most interesting are those celestial bodies or space probes that "fly" out of the solar system.
But to be clear, while many science fiction works or mass media like to describe planets, comets, or other celestial bodies as "flying out of the solar system," in reality, these claims are not entirely accurate. Strictly speaking, there is relative motion between the planets we know (including Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune), dwarf planets (Pluto, etc.) and many other asteroids, meteors, comets, etc., and this motion follows Kepler's three laws and other physical laws.
The concept of "flying out of the solar system" does not mean that a celestial body leaves the influence area of the sun directly, but that it may temporarily or permanently move away from the gravitational influence of the sun under certain circumstances. So which countries have launched spacecraft that have ever achieved such an effect?
Let's take a look at the astronauts at NASA in the United States. Their travel experience is arguably the most enriching. Back in 1962, the United States entered the space domain by sending an unmanned spacecraft called "Explorer 1" into space. Since then, they have successfully achieved several manned missions to the moon, and sent two small robots, "Viking 1" and "Viking 2", to the surface of Mars to conduct detailed scientific investigations of the Red Planet.
Further afield, the Hubble Space Telescope, a space telescope dominated by the United States, continues to show us the secrets of the universe. The largest deep space journey to date is the Artemis program, which is scheduled to take place around the 2030s, with the goal of establishing a sustainable human base in the Moon's South Pole region and conducting a series of scientific research activities there.
As one of the first countries in the world to independently develop ICBMs and artificial satellites, the Soviet Union (and later Russia) also made a number of important achievements in space. Most notably, an unmanned rocket ship called the Meritorious Warrior, launched in 1978, successfully crossed the asteroid belt, which was also the first time in history that a man-made vehicle attempted to do so.
China has also made a series of breakthroughs in the field of space. For example, the Chang'e series lunar exploration project has successfully achieved three soft landings and sample returns, and is actively promoting the research and development of the fourth mission. There are also self-manufactured communication satellites, navigation satellites and other types of spacecraft that are constantly being lifted into space.
Over the past few decades, countries around the world have been trying to expand their space careers in order to better understand and exploit this mysterious and vast arena. Although no country has launched a spacecraft that has truly "flown out of the solar system", with the progress and development of science and technology, this day may not be too far away. As long as we work together, I believe that we will have the opportunity to uncover more secrets about the universe in the future!