{"id":54753,"date":"2024-02-10T09:23:30","date_gmt":"2024-02-10T09:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4d8f45e3-5c63-44d2-8c90-1891ceb26034"},"modified":"2024-02-10T09:34:01","modified_gmt":"2024-02-10T09:34:01","slug":"a-history-of-music-in-space","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/a-history-of-music-in-space\/","title":{"rendered":"A history of music in space"},"content":{"rendered":"

A look at the music that humanity has sent into space. <\/p>

By Jon Powell\n <\/p>

Published: Saturday, 10 February 2024 at 09:23 AM<\/p>

\n\n

As the needle touches down on a vinyl record, so has music itself touched down on other worlds beyond Earth.<\/p>

Whether the melodies have been transmitted from Earth\u2019s surface or launched aboard spacecraft into space, it can be said that music has twinkled the stars.<\/p>

Radio signals have been leaving our planet for years, and even now, someone, somewhere, may be playing the PopMaster quiz on a distant world \u2013 and still getting it wrong.<\/p>

It\u2019s a comforting thought to consider that vastly superior alien life<\/a> may not be able to name that Number One hit from the 1980s.<\/p>

Thomas Pesquet plays saxophone in the Cupola module on the International Space Station, 31 May 2017. Credit: ESA\/NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Music in the Apollo era<\/strong><\/h2>

The crew of Apollo 10<\/a> managed to make their own \u2018music\u2019 in space.<\/p>

As the astronauts rounded the far side<\/a> of the Moon in 1969, they reported whistling sounds to NASA officials back on Earth.<\/p>

These notes turned out to be the result of crossed wires in the communication system between the lunar module and the command module.<\/p>

However, in a test-run for Apollo 11\u2019s actual playing of the track on the lunar surface later, Frank Sinatra\u2019s \u2018Fly Me to the Moon\u2019 made its first trek with Apollo 10.<\/p>