NASA Beams Hip-Hop Song to Venus

NASA is planning two missions to Venus later this decade, but Missy Elliott got there a lot sooner. The space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory says the Deep Space Network beamed Elliott's hit "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" to Venus on Friday. The agency says it's the first hip-hop song transmitted to space—and the only other song sent to space apart from "Across the Universe" by the Beatles.

• "Both space exploration and Missy Elliott's art have been about pushing boundaries," says Brittany Brown at NASA headquarters, who pitched the idea to the hip-hop star's team. "Missy has a track record of infusing space-centric storytelling and futuristic visuals in her music videos, so the opportunity to collaborate on something out of this world is truly fitting."

• The transmission was sent at the speed of light from a 112-foot wide radio dish antenna nicknamed "Venus" at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex near Barstow, California.
• The song took nearly 14 minutes to reach Venus, Elliott's favorite planet. The Beatles song was beamed toward the North Star, Polaris, in 2008, but the signal won't get there for another 415 years.
• "YOOO this is crazy!" Elliott said in a post on X. "My song 'The Rain' has officially been transmitted all the way to Venus, the planet that symbolizes strength, beauty and empowerment. The sky is not the limit, it's just the beginning."
• While only two songs have been sent to space through the Deep Space Network, NASA has long played music as wake-up calls for astronauts, the New York Times reports. In 1965, Gemini VI astronauts heard Jack Jones sing a parody of "Hello, Dolly!" In 1969, Apollo 10 astronauts heard Frank Sinatra's "Fly Me to the Moon" as they approached the moon.

(More Missy Elliott stories.)