At this exact moment in 1969, the crew of Apollo 11 are listening to an instrumental version of “Fly Me to the Moon.”
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.