NASA transmits first hip-hop song to Venus via Deep Space Network

(MENAFN-IANS) New Delhi, July 16 (IANS) NASA on Tuesday announced that hip-hop legend Missy Elliot’s first song, “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly),” has been transmitted to Venus via its space network.

The song was broadcast on Friday, July 12, at 10:05 a.m. PDT from the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

While this is the first hip-hop song to travel into space, the Beatles song titled “Across The Universe” was the first song sent into space by NASA in 2018.

“Both space exploration and Missy Elliott’s art were about pushing boundaries,” said Brittany Brown, director of digital and technology.

According to NASA, the song traveled a distance of around 254 million kilometers from Earth to Venus, the artist’s favorite planet. The radio frequency signal was transmitted at the speed of light and took about 14 minutes to reach the planet.

The transmission was made via the 34-meter-wide parabolic antenna of Deep Space Station 13 (DSS-13, also called Venus, in honor of the Venus Radar Experiment of March 1961) in the DSN’s Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex near Barstow, California.

“I still can’t believe I’m leaving this world with NASA via the Deep Space Network when ‘The Rain’ (Supa Dupa Fly) becomes the first hip hop song ever to be transmitted into space. I chose Venus because it symbolizes strength, beauty and empowerment and I’m so humbled to have the opportunity to share my art and message with the universe,” Elliott said.

In the meantime, two NASA missions will explore Venus and use the DSN to send data to Earth.

The launch of DAVINCI (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging) is planned for 2029.

The launch of VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography and Spectroscopy) is planned for 2031.

NASA and DSN are also collaborating with the European Space Agency’s Envision Venus mission.

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