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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — In celebration of the 200th anniversary of Johann Strauss II’s birth, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra will perform his iconic “Blue Danube” waltz, which will be beamed into deep space on May 31. This celestial concert also commemorates the 50th anniversary of the European Space Agency (ESA).
The performance will be livestreamed with free public viewings in Vienna, Madrid, and New York. To ensure a flawless transmission, ESA will transmit a pre-recorded version of the orchestra’s rehearsal, synchronized with the live performance.
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. Within 23 hours, the music will have traveled as far as Voyager 1, currently over 15 billion miles away in interstellar space.
This isn’t the first time music has been sent into the cosmos. In 2008, NASA transmitted the Beatles’ “Across the Universe” to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
Last year, Missy Elliott’s “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” was sent toward Venus. Even Mars has gotten in on the act, relaying will.i.am’s “Reach for the Stars” back to Earth in 2012 after receiving it from NASA’s Curiosity rover.
Interestingly, Strauss’ “Blue Danube” was not included on the Voyager Golden Records launched in 1977. These records, containing sounds and images of Earth, including 90 minutes of music, were curated by a committee led by the late astronomer Carl Sagan. Despite its use in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,” Strauss’s masterpiece was omitted.
The Vienna Tourist Board, seeking to rectify this oversight, aims to send the waltz to its “destined home among the stars.” ESA’s large radio antenna in Spain, part of its deep-space network, will transmit the music in the direction of Voyager 1.
ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher noted, “Music connects us all through time and space. ESA is pleased to partner with Johann Strauss II and inspire future space explorers who may one day journey to this anthem of space.”