At this exact moment in 1969, the crew of Apollo 11 are listening to an instrumental version of “Fly Me to the Moon.”
@schuth I wonder who was responsible for packing that record—and, by extension, who got to pick the tunes on that interstellar road trip?
@smokey NASA’s Public Affairs actually addressed it as it was happening! PA explained the crew took tapes with them, pre-recorded with music. After listening to them, they recorded messages over the music on the tapes. Vanity Fair published a piece on the mix tapes last fall.
@schuth Ah, great; thanks! (And right after I wrote “record” I then wondered…surely they had some form of casette tape by then, if only one invented for the purpose of spaceflight.)
@smokey You’re welcome! I know guys who carried reel-to-reel tape machines around Vietnam, so I had those in mind before I read the astronauts used compact cassettes.
@smokey Fifty years ago right now, Buzz is playing music again as the crew prepares to go to bed on the last night before humans step foot on the Moon.