Johann Strauss II’s popular orchestral piece “By the Beautiful Blue Danube” has been inextricably linked to space since it was used in the 1968 classic film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
This week, the piece will take a more literal place among the stars when the European Space Agency broadcasts it into space.
The “Blue Danube” broadcast is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the ESA’s creation, as well as 200 years since Strauss’ birth.
Strauss was from Austria, and the Vienna Tourist Board is helping the space agency arrange the broadcast.
A piece by another famous Austrian composer, Mozart, was included on the Voyager Golden Record.
Since its use in the famous 1968 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, Johann Strauss II’s well-known orchestral composition “By the Beautiful Blue Danube” has become inextricably linked to space.
As a fictional spaceship docks with a space station, offering sweeping views of the Earth and far-off stars, the waltz is played.
The European Space Agency will broadcast the piece into space this week, giving it a more tangible place among the stars.
The piece will be played live by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra on Saturday, and the music will be broadcast from a radio antenna in Spain.
“Blue Danube” is commemorating 200 years since Strauss’ birth and the 50th anniversary of the ESA’s founding.
When NASA launched 27 musical compositions, along with other sounds and images, on corresponding “Golden Records” on the Voyager 1 and 2 missions in 1977, the waltz was strikingly missing. The first object created by humans to ever leave the solar system was the Voyager 1 probe. Even now, both probes continue to travel into deep space.
According to the ESA, it seeks to address that historical failure.
The director of the Vienna Tourist Board, Norbert Kettner, said in a statement that the 1977 Voyager Golden Record’s omission of the most well-known waltze of all was a cosmic error.
The Vienna Tourist Board is assisting the space agency in setting up the broadcast, and Strauss was from Austria.
A composition by Mozart, another well-known Austrian composer, was featured on the Voyager Golden Record.
at the speed of light for transmission.
The ESA is in charge of the 115-foot-wide radio antenna in Spain where the piece is being aired. It supports uncrewed European missions to map the stars, take close-up photos of the sun, and investigate the surface of Mars.
It will take a break from that work on Saturday.
There will be an online livestream of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra’s performance. The performance’s sound will be transformed into an electromagnetic wave. That wave will travel toward Voyager 1 at the speed of light and enter space. It is inaudible to humans. In just twenty-three hours, the music will surpass the probe, which was launched in 1977 and departed the solar system in 2012.
“This proves that our technology can send not only scientific information but also artistic creations across great distances,” ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said in a statement regarding the broadcast.
Humans have broadcast music into space before.
