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How long would it take to get to Saturn?
Saturn is 749,062,972 miles from Earth at its closest and 1,030,606,259 miles at its farthest. A car at 65 mph would need 1,315 years for the shorter distance and 1,809 years for the longer. A passenger jet at 570 mph would need 150 years and 206 years.
749,062,972 mi
Distance at the closest
1 hour 7 minutes
Light travel time at the closest
1,315 years
By car at 65 mph
150 years
By jet at 570 mph
Travel time by vehicle
| Vehicle | Speed | Closest | Typical | Farthest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walking | 3 mph | 28,484 years | 33,837 years | 39,190 years |
| Bicycle | 12 mph | 7,121 years | 8,459 years | 9,797 years |
| Car on a highway | 65 mph | 1,315 years | 1,562 years | 1,809 years |
| Passenger jet | 570 mph | 150 years | 178 years | 206 years |
| SR-71 Blackbird, its official speed record | 2,193 mph | 39.0 years | 46.3 years | 53.6 years |
| Voyager 1, about 17 km/s | 38,028 mph | 2.2 years | 2.7 years | 3.1 years |
| Parker Solar Probe at closest approach, 692,000 km/h | 429,989 mph | 73 days | 86 days | 100 days |
| Light | 670,616,629 mph | 1 hour 7 minutes | 1 hour 19 minutes | 1 hour 32 minutes |
How long real spacecraft took
Voyager 1 needed 3.2 years and Cassini 6.7 years. Spacecraft rarely fly straight at a target. They follow curved paths timed to launch windows, so the trip is longer than the distance alone suggests.
| Mission | Launched | Arrived | Trip time | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voyager 1 | September 5, 1977 | November 12, 1980 | 3.2 years | Closest approach to Saturn |
| Cassini | October 15, 1997 | July 1, 2004 | 6.7 years | Entered orbit around Saturn |
Why the answer changes
Saturn is 1.4 times farther away at its farthest than at its closest, so every travel time above is 1.4 times longer at the far end. The distance depends on where both planets are in their orbits. The closest figure is the smallest possible gap, and the typical figure is the midpoint between the closest and the farthest.
Try your own speed
Other destinations
Sources and method
- Distances: NASA Planetary Fact Sheet, accessed October 18, 2026. Closest and farthest are the minimum and maximum distance from Earth in NASA's table. Typical is the midpoint, except for the Moon (average distance) and the Sun (mean distance).
- Vehicle speeds are round figures chosen for comparison, not measurements. Light travels at 299,792.458 km/s.
- Voyager 1: NASA NSSDC closest-approach table; launch date from GCAT.
- Cassini: ESA, date only (the burn was late on June 30 in California).