In 1977 NASA launched a load of earthly cultural goodies into space to benefit the extra-terrestrials including two Voyager Golden Records, omitting Johann Strauss II’s ‘Blue Danube,’ despite its appearance in ‘2001 – a Space Odyssey.’
Vienna and agency Jung von Matt Donau are celebrating Strauss’s 200th birthday by remedying this, sending the aforementioned tune, recorded at a special concert, to catch up Voyager with a digitised signal via the European Space Agency’s deep space communication facilities at Cebreros, Spain. The signal will continue indefinitely, traveling at 299,792 km/s – the speed of light, and will surpass Voyager 1 in about 23 hours and 3 minutes from launch.
The campaign features a NASA type who loved the Blue Danube so much he forgot it.
Vienna Tourist Board’s Norbert Kettner says: “As part of our mission with the European Space Agency, we are broadcasting “The Blue Danube” in the direction of the spacecraft that is already moving in interstellar space – ‘Waltz into Space’ thus has an effect beyond our solar system and also inspires people on Earth to experience culture in Vienna.”
It’s a bit of a stretch, in more ways than one, but deserves an ‘A’ for effort.
MAA creative scale: 7.
