In 2008, NASA broadcast a song for the first time (Across the Universeby The Beatles) into space. The broadcast via NASA’s Deep Space Network commemorated the 40th anniversary of the recording of this song, as well as the 50th anniversary of the creation of the space agency. The broadcast was aimed at the North Star, Polaris, which is located 431 light years from Earth and traveling at a speed of 300,000 kilometers per second. Now NASA has done it again, but this time in hip-hop: The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly) from Missy Elliott, was transmitted to Venus via the Deep Space Network, or DSN.
This is the largest and most sensitive telecommunications service in NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program, the DSN has a series of giant radio antennas that allow missions track, send instructions to, and receive scientific data from spacecraft venturing to the Moon and beyond.
“Both Missy Elliott’s space exploration and art have been about pushing boundaries,” said Brittany Brown, director of the Technology and Digital Division in NASA Headquarters’ Office of Communications, in a statement. “Missy has a history of infusing space-focused storytelling and futuristic imagery into her music videos, so the opportunity to collaborate on something out of this world is really appropriate.”
The song traveled about 254 million kilometers from Earth to Venusthe artist’s favorite planet. Transmitted at the speed of light, the radio frequency signal took nearly 14 minutes to reach the planet. The transmission was made by the 34-meter-wide Deep Space Station 13 (DSS-13) radio dish, located at DSN’s Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex near Barstow, California. Coincidentally, DSS-13 is also nicknamed Venus. Elliott’s musical career began more than 30 years ago, and the DSN has been communicating with spacecraft for more than 60 years. Now, thanks to the network, his music has traveled far beyond his earthly fans into a different world.
“I still can’t believe I’m going to leave this world with NASA via the Deep Space Network when ‘The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)’ becomes the first hip-hop song to be transmitted into space“! – Elliott said in the statement -. I chose Venus because it symbolizes strength, beauty and empowerment, and I am so honored to have the opportunity to share my art and my message with the universe!”
Two NASA missions, selected in 2021, will explore Venus and send data back to Earth using the DSN. DAVINCI (Deep Atmospheric Venus Noble Gas Investigation, Chemistry, and Imaging), conducted from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is scheduled to launch in about five years.
The second is VERITAS (Emissivity of Venus, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography and Spectroscopy), which will be launched no earlier than 2031 and is also part of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). The objective of this test is to Test how communications between Earth and other planets work to be able to send instructions to the probes and receive information in the shortest time possible.