what year did this take place?

I'm going to guess sometime after the year 2100. The technology has advanced to a point where propulsion in space allows for quick trips to the Moon and Mars, and not only that but Mars to Neptune--which would take years with today's engines.

We're a very long way away from that kind of space travel. New Horizons launched in 2006 and it took until 2015 to reach Pluto and another 4 years to reach the edge of the Kuiper Belt.

Communications technology has also improved, to the point of getting communications from vast distances fairly quickly without having to wait hours or days.