This month, in a celebration of the 200th anniversary of Johann Strauss II’s birth, his iconic waltz “Blue Danube” will be transmitted into space. The performance by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra will take place on May 31 and will be livestreamed, with free public screenings in Vienna, Madrid, and New York. This event also marks the 50th anniversary of the European Space Agency (ESA).
To ensure a smooth transmission, a pre-recorded version of the music from the orchestra’s rehearsal will be sent to avoid technical complications, while the live performance serves as the backdrop. The radio signals will travel at the speed of light, reaching the Moon in just 1.5 seconds, Mars in 4.5 minutes, Jupiter in 37 minutes, and Neptune in four hours. Within a day, the signals will be as far away as NASA’s Voyager 1, currently over 15 billion miles from Earth.
NASA has previously beamed music into deep space, such as the Beatles’ “Across the Universe” in 2008 and Missy Elliott’s track in 2022. In 2012, a recording of will.i.am’s “Reach for the Stars” was sent to a Mars rover. The upcoming transmission of “Blue Danube” aims to rectify Strauss’s absence from the Voyager Golden Records, which were launched in 1977 and featured works by various classical composers but overlooked Strauss.
The ESA’s large radio antenna in Spain will direct the signals toward Voyager 1. ESA director general Josef Aschbacher remarked on music’s unique ability to connect humanity across time and space, expressing hope that this initiative inspires future space scientists and explorers.
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