posted 11-10-2005 10:32 AM               

Paul McCartney Provides First-Ever Live Station Wakeup Music

The International Space Station crew, 220 miles above Earth, will receive a special live musical wakeup call from Paul McCartney Sunday during a first-ever concert linkup.

The wakeup will come from McCartney's "US" Tour performance at the Anaheim, Calif., Arrowhead Pond. McCartney plans to play two songs, "Good Day Sunshine" and "English Tea," for NASA Astronaut Bill McArthur and Russian Cosmonaut Valery Tokarev. This is the first time a live concert will be linked to a U.S. spacecraft.

The call will take place at 12:55 a.m. EST, Sunday, Nov. 13 (9:55 p.m. PST, Nov. 12) as the concert is nearing its end; and McArthur and Tokarev are awakening for the 44th day of their six month mission in space. It will be broadcast live on NASA TV, with video expected of McArthur and Tokarev and audio from both locations.

During his tour, McCartney has paid tribute to the crew of Space Shuttle Discovery's STS-114 mission, a flight to the space station last summer. On Aug. 9, the Beatles' classic "Good Day Sunshine" was played as a wakeup call for Discovery's crew because of a favorable weather forecast for landing that morning.

"I was extremely proud to find out that one of my songs was played for the crew of Discovery this summer," McCartney said. "In our concert we hope to repay the favor." McCartney is nearing the end of his 11-week "US" tour.

"Since people were first awakened on the moon by mission control, wakeup songs have been a space tradition to brighten the crew's day and get them off to a great start," said astronaut Eileen Collins, who commanded Discovery. "We're honored that Paul McCartney will be a part of this historic delivery of music for Bill and Valery. It will surely give them a big boost as they continue through their research mission."

McArthur and Tokarev are the 12th crew of the station, which has had a continuous human presence for more than five years. The station has an internal volume larger than an average three-bedroom house and includes the most sophisticated space laboratory ever flown.

posted 11-10-2005 11:41 PM               

August 5, 1966 - 'Revolver', the 7th UK Beatle album, which includes 'Good Day Sunshine', is released, (in between the launches of G-10 & G-11).

August 5, 2000 - Sir Alec Guinness dies of liver cancer. Nominated five times for an Academy Award, he won for 'The Bridge on the River Kwai', plus an honorary Oscar. One nomination was for his portrayal of 'Obi-Wan Kenobi'.

posted 11-13-2005 09:58 AM               

It is a tradition to wake astronauts up with recorded songs, but this marked the first time astronauts listened to live music from space.

posted 11-07-2006 02:36 PM               

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Originally posted by bruce:
The top of page 20 in Colin's list is a song I wrote for the crew...

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This is a short "Before, During & (Just) After" documentary of the events surrounding "Space Is Our World".

We were so fortunate to be able to express our heartfelt support for space exploration through our music! Bill Todd, my friend and JSC flight-training teacher, gave me a VIP tour of the Space Shuttle SST Simulator. I was also able to introduce my daughter to some of the STS-31 astronauts while they were training at the Johnson Space Center before their mission. My daughter asked astronaut Kathy Sullivan, who was standing outside of the motion-based simulator with Steve Hawley and Bruce McCandless in their orange flight suits, "where are you going?" Sullivan pointed a single finger in the air and said "Up there!", to which my daughter said, "Can I come too?" Boy, was Papa proud!!

It was during this time that I first met Original Seven Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter. Carpenter was just a delightful guy who was very inquisitive about music and the recording process. Every time I asked him a question about his Aurora 7 spaceflight, he answered and then asked me a question about the multi-track recording process!

posted 01-28-2007 11:50 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
The title, per NASA, is pronounced is E-M-A E-M-A...

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posted 01-28-2007 11:54 AM               

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Originally posted by steve_greene:
The artist EMA EMA?

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posted 12-02-2007 01:21 PM               

Space Shuttle Atlantis Astronaut Chooses Quincy Jones' 1969 Recording 'Walking in Space' as His Wake-Up Music

When the Space Shuttle Atlantis launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Thursday, December 6th on its mission to deliver the European Space Agency's Columbus laboratory to the International Space Station, Astronaut Leland Melvin will have in tow a copy of Quincy Jones' 1969 Grammy Award winning recording "Walking in Space," which he will use as his wake-up music during the mission.

Commented Melvin, "Quincy Jones is someone who I have a great deal of respect and admiration for and I couldn't think of a more appropriate selection to use as my wake-up music."

Melvin's duties on the Shuttle Atlantis mission will be to support three space walks using the robotic arm and install the Columbus laboratory from Atlantis' payload bay to its permanent home on the International Space Station.

Commented Jones, "I am truly honored that Mr. Melvin has chosen one of my pieces of work for this momentous occasion. I was inspired to record the 'Walking in Space' album in 1969 after Buzz Aldrin told me that he had played my arrangement of Frank Sinatra's 'Fly Me To The Moon' during his space flight to the moon, so to have it come full circle like this is quite remarkable and very humbling."

A jazz-R&B-pop fusion album that helped usher in a new era in R&B music in the early 70's, "Walking in Space" won Jones a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance By a Large Group. Citing his groundbreaking work on "Walking in Space," in 1998 Time Magazine named Quincy Jones one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th Century. In January, Jones will receive the nation's highest jazz honor when he is recognized as a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts.[/QUOTE] And in related news, STS-122 mission specialist Stan Love's wake-up selection. Source: The Student Life [QUOTE]As per astronaut tradition, Love was asked to select a song to be used as a wake up call for crewmembers on one morning. He chose the school's anthem, "Hail Thee, Harvey Mudd," which was written by his longtime friend Amy Lewkowicz '90.