Waltz composed by Strauss, 'Blue Danube', is set to travel into space as a centennial tribute on his 200th birthday.
Europe's Space Agency (ESA) will send Strauss' "Blue Danube" waltz into space on May 31 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the composers' birth and the agency's own 50th anniversary.
The classical piece, performed by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, will be followed by a pre-recorded relay from the orchestra's rehearsal to avoid technical issues. The live performance will serve as the accompanying music. The radio signals carrying the waltz will travel at the speed of light, reaching the moon in 1.5 seconds, Mars in 4.5 minutes, Jupiter in 37 minutes, and Neptune in four hours.
By 23 hours, the signals will have traveled as far as NASA's Voyager 1, the world's most distant spacecraft. In 2008, NASA celebrated its 50th anniversary by transmitting the Beatles' "Across the Universe," while last year it beamed up Missy Elliott's "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" towards Venus. Space agencies' practice of sending music into space symbolizes human creativity and strives to bridge the divide between Earth and the universe.
In 1977, NASA launched the Voyager Golden Records, carrying 27 pieces of music, but Johann Strauss II's "Blue Danube" was not included due to its omission in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. The Vienna tourist board aims to rectify this "cosmic mistake" by sending the waltz to its rightful place among the stars. ESA's deep-space antenna in Spain will transmit the music towards Voyager 1, symbolizing a connection that transcends time and space.
The Vienna Tourist Board, in an attempt to rectify a "cosmic mistake", plans to send Johann Strauss II's "Blue Danube" waltz into space through ESA's deep-space antenna in Spain, replicating the journey that NASA's Voyager Golden Records intended for the piece but omitted due to its absence in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. This action highlights the space agencies' mission to symbolize human creativity and bridge gaps, following the tradition set by NASA's transmissions of space-themed entertainment, such as the Beatles' "Across the Universe" and Missy Elliott's "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" towards celestial bodies.
