Latest news with #Voyager1
France 24
14 hours ago
- Entertainment
- France 24
Vienna calling: Strauss's 'The Blue Danube' to waltz into outer space
But the world famous waltz will truly travel among the stars on Saturday, when the European Space Agency's (ESA) antenna will broadcast a live performance of it into space to celebrate the composer's 200th birthday. The Vienna Symphony Orchestra will play a concert in the Austrian capital from 1930 GMT, Josef Aschbacher, ESA's director general, told AFP. The concert will be broadcast live on the internet and also be shown at a public screening in Vienna, in New York at Bryant Park, and near the antenna in Spain. "The digitised sound will be transmitted to the large 35-metre satellite dish at ESA's Cebreros ground station in Spain," Aschbacher said. And from there, the waltz will be "transmitted in the form of electromagnetic waves", the Austrian astronomer explained. 'Typical of space' Like no other waltz by Strauss junior, "The Blue Danube" evokes the elegance of 19th-century imperial Vienna, which lives on in the city's roaring ball season. For Norbert Kettner, director of the Vienna tourist board, the Danube waltz is a "true unofficial space anthem" because of Kubrick. The timeless waltz is the "typical sound of space", Kettner said, with the tunes being played "during various docking manoeuvres of the International Space Station (ISS)". When the waltz is performed on Saturday, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra will make sure to underline the waltz's airiness as if it were floating through space, its director Jan Nast said. According to Nast, who put together the programme for Saturday's hour-long "interstellar concert", music is a language "which touches many people" and has "the universal power to convey hope and joy". Filling a gap Once transmitted via Spain's satellite dish, the signal will travel at the speed of light to eventually reach NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft -- the most distant man-made object in the universe -- in approximately 23 hours and 3 minutes. After surpassing Voyager 1, it will continue its interstellar journey. By catching up with the spacecraft and its twin, Voyager 2, Austria also seeks to right a perceived wrong. Both Voyagers carry "Golden Records" -- 12-inch, gold-plated copper disks intended to convey the story of our world to extraterrestrials. The record holds 115 images of life on Earth, recorded in analogue form, and a variety of sounds and snatches of music. While "The Magic Flute" by Austria's composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was included among the selection of 27 music pieces, Strauss's famous waltz was not.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
VIENNA CELEBRATES AT BRYANT PARK AS THE BLUE DANUBE WALTZ IS SENT INTO SPACE
VIENNA, May 28, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Vienna Tourist Board is hosting a unique free event in New York's Bryant Park on May 31 to celebrate a historic transmission into deep space. In partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Wiener Symphoniker (Vienna Symphony Orchestra), Vienna will launch Johann Strauss II's "The Blue Danube" waltz towards NASA's Voyager 1. This interstellar broadcast is part of a larger celebration marking the 200th anniversary of Strauss's birth and rectifies its omission from the original Voyager Golden Records. Norbert Kettner, Director of the Vienna Tourist Board, said: "Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey made the 'Danube Waltz' the anthem of space – the omission of the most famous of all waltzes from the 1977 Voyager Golden Record is a cosmic mistake that we are correcting." The event is the culmination of Vienna's "Waltz Space" campaign, which invited fans to symbolically send a note of the song into space, with 13,743 note sponsors. The campaign aims not just to commemorate Strauss's birth, but to reinforce Vienna's status as the music capital of the world, positioning it as a destination full of rich musical experiences. The free event will take place in Manhattan's Bryant Park from 1:00 to 5:00 PM: 1:00 PM: Pre-show festivities with DJ Kyra Caruso, waltz lessons by Aga Bohun, and opportunities to claim a "SpaceNote"—a unique note from "The Blue Danube"—for a chance to win a trip to Vienna. 2:30 PM: Live broadcast of the "Waltz into Space" concert from Vienna's Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), featuring works by Dvořák, Ligeti, Mozart, Josef Strauss, and Ives. 3:30 PM: Real-time transmission of "The Blue Danube" into deep space via ESA's Deep Space Antenna in Cebreros, Spain. 3:45 PM: Post-event wind-down with music and refreshments. The event is free and open to the public. Representatives from the Vienna Tourist Board will be available for interviews. For press photos, visit this Dropbox-Page. For more information on the "Waltz into Space" campaign, Vienna Tourist Board Newsroom or For the event's website visit SOURCE Vienna Tourist Board Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Nahar Net
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Nahar Net
Strauss' 'Blue Danube' waltz is launching into space to mark his 200th birthday
by Naharnet Newsdesk 27 May 2025, 15:14 Strauss' "Blue Danube" is heading into space this month to mark the 200th anniversary of the waltz king's birth. The classical piece will be beamed into the cosmos as it's performed by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. The celestial send-off on May 31 — livestreamed with free public screenings in Vienna, Madrid and New York — also will celebrate the European Space Agency's founding 50 years ago. Although the music could be converted into radio signals in real time, according to officials, ESA will relay a pre-recorded version from the orchestra's rehearsal the day before to avoid any technical issues. The live performance will provide the accompaniment. The radio signals will hurtle away at the speed of light, or a mind-blowing 670 million mph (more than 1 billion kph). That will put the music past the moon in 1 ½ seconds, past Mars in 4 ½ minutes, past Jupiter in 37 minutes and past Neptune in four hours. Within 23 hours, the signals will be as far from Earth as NASA's Voyager 1, the world's most distant spacecraft at more than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) in interstellar space. NASA also celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2008 by transmitting a song directly into deep space: the Beatles' "Across the Universe." And last year, NASA beamed up Missy Elliott's "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" toward Venus. Music has even flowed from another planet to Earth — courtesy of a NASA Mars rover. Flight controllers at California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory sent a recording of "Reach for the Stars" to Curiosity in 2012 and the rover relayed it back. These are all deep-space transmissions as opposed to the melodies streaming between NASA's Mission Control and orbiting crews since the mid-1960s. Now it's Strauss' turn, after getting passed over for the Voyager Golden Records nearly a half-century ago. Launched in 1977, NASA's twin Voyagers 1 and 2 each carry a gold-plated copper phonograph record, along with a stylus and playing instructions for anyone or anything out there. The records contain sounds and images of Earth as well as 90 minutes of music. The late astronomer Carl Sagan led the committee that chose Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Stravinsky pieces, along with modern and Indigenous selections. Among those skipped was Johann Strauss II, whose "Blue Danube" graced Stanley Kubrick's 1968 sci-fi opus "2001: A Space Odyssey." The tourist board in Vienna, where Strauss was born on Oct. 25, 1825, said it aims to correct this "cosmic mistake" by sending the "the most famous of all waltzes" to its destined home among the stars. ESA's big radio antenna in Spain, part of the space agency's deep-space network, will do the honors. The dish will be pointed in the direction of Voyager 1 so the "Blue Danube" heads that way. "Music connects us all through time and space in a very particular way," ESA's director general Josef Aschbacher said in a statement. "The European Space Agency is pleased to share the stage with Johann Strauss II and open the imaginations of future space scientists and explorers who may one day journey to the anthem of
Los Angeles Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Strauss' ‘Blue Danube' waltz is launching into space to mark his 200th birthday
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Strauss' 'Blue Danube' is heading into space this month to mark the 200th anniversary of the waltz king's birth. The classical piece will be beamed into the cosmos as it's performed by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. The celestial send-off on Saturday — livestreamed with free public screenings in Vienna, Madrid and New York — also will celebrate the European Space Agency's founding 50 years ago. Although the music could be converted into radio signals in real time, according to officials, ESA will relay a pre-recorded version from the orchestra's rehearsal the day before to avoid any technical issues. The live performance will provide the accompaniment. The radio signals will hurtle away at the speed of light, or a mind-blowing 670 million mph. That will put the music past the moon in 1 ½ seconds, past Mars in 4 ½ minutes, past Jupiter in 37 minutes and past Neptune in four hours. Within 23 hours, the signals will be as far from Earth as NASA's Voyager 1, the world's most distant spacecraft at more than 15 billion miles in interstellar space. NASA also celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2008 by transmitting a song directly into deep space: the Beatles' 'Across the Universe.' And last year, NASA beamed up Missy Elliott's 'The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)' toward Venus. Music has even flowed from another planet to Earth — courtesy of a NASA Mars rover. Flight controllers at California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory sent a recording of 'Reach for the Stars' to Curiosity in 2012 and the rover relayed it back. These are all deep-space transmissions as opposed to the melodies streaming between NASA's Mission Control and orbiting crews since the mid-1960s. Now it's Strauss' turn, after getting passed over for the Voyager Golden Records nearly a half-century ago. Launched in 1977, NASA's twin Voyagers 1 and 2 each carry a gold-plated copper phonograph record, along with a stylus and playing instructions for anyone or anything out there. The records contain sounds and images of Earth as well as 90 minutes of music. The late astronomer Carl Sagan led the committee that chose Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Stravinsky pieces, along with modern and Indigenous selections. Among those skipped was Johann Strauss II, whose 'Blue Danube' graced Stanley Kubrick's 1968 sci-fi opus '2001: A Space Odyssey.' The tourist board in Vienna, where Strauss was born on Oct. 25, 1825, said it aims to correct this 'cosmic mistake' by sending the 'the most famous of all waltzes' to its destined home among the stars. ESA's big radio antenna in Spain, part of the space agency's deep-space network, will do the honors. The dish will be pointed in the direction of Voyager 1 so the 'Blue Danube' heads that way. 'Music connects us all through time and space in a very particular way,' ESA's director general Josef Aschbacher said in a statement. 'The European Space Agency is pleased to share the stage with Johann Strauss II and open the imaginations of future space scientists and explorers who may one day journey to the anthem of space.' Dunn writes for the Associated Press.
LeMonde
5 days ago
- Science
- LeMonde
NASA restarts one of Voyager 1's thrusters after 21 years of inactivity
47 years and eight months after its launch, Voyager 1 continues to push the limits of what seemed possible. Currently 24.88 billion kilometers from Earth – 166 times the distance between Earth and the Sun – Voyager 1 is the farthest human-made object from our planet. The legendary NASA probe, launched in 1977 alongside its twin, Voyager 2, is set to have its mission extended a little longer since engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) announced on May 14 that they had successfully revived, remotely, a thruster critical to the spacecraft's survival. Voyager 1 navigates using the positions of stars, which it can read by controlling its roll – that is, its rotation relative to the axis of its antenna – using two thrusters (a main and a backup). Over time, leftover propellant residue deposited after each firing gradually clogged the narrow inlet pipes of the main thruster. This forced engineers to switch both Voyager 1 and 2 to their backup roll thrusters to keep them pointed at their guide stars. But the backup thruster itself gradually became "clogged," leaving the ground team with few options, especially since the main system failed in 2004. At the time, engineers concluded that the failure was "probably irreversible."
