It’s a tradition that dates back to the earliest days of NASA‘s space missions: Astronauts sent into space on the various Apollo missions would wake up to a piece of music the NASA ground control team would transmit to the spacecraft.
As we approach the final days of the Space Shuttle program, NASA is opening up the door of opportunity to songwriters and musicians of all stripes to take a shot at having their music selected as wake-up music. As reported by UPI and explained on NASA’s Space Rock, the public is invited to participate in two different ways to craft the morning playlist for the shuttle’s final days. No. 1, you can select your favorites from a list of 40 previously played wake-up songs. The voting period runs through the launch date of Shuttle Mission STS-133, currently scheduled for Nov. 1, 2010. No. 2, NASA invites musicians to submit their original recorded creations for possible inclusion in the final shuttle mission:STS-134. Deadline submission is Jan. 10, 2011, and the launch date for final mission is scheduled for Feb. 26 of next year.
In the past, songs have occasionally been selected for very specific reasons. Discovery News provides a list of 10 examples of well-matched tunes, some tongue-in-cheek, and some poignant. The Carpenter’s “We’ve Only Just Begun” was played prior to the 1972 departure from the moon to Earth for the Apollo 17 crew. More recently, the theme to The Woody Woodpecker Show made a sonic appearance for a team whose departure was delayed by woodpeckers who plied their particular craft on the fuel tank’s external foam insulation.
Meanwhile, USA Today points out that some songs are tried-and-true, wake-up favorites for NASA missions. Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You Babe,” which played a very iconic role in the film Groundhog Day, is often aired repeatedly aboard missions whose landing dates keep getting pushed back day after day. James Brown’s “I Feel Good” and ABBA’s “I Have a Dream” are two more perennial faves.
Photo by NASA via Wikimedia Commons.