American superstar Missy Elliott has a new achievement to her name. She recently became the first hip-hop artist to have a song beamed to a planet. Venus is her favourite planet, so after more than 30 years in the music industry, American space agency NASA gave her debut solo single a one-way ticket to Earth's neighbour.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory sent the lyrics of her hit song, "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)", 158 million miles into space to the Earth's 'evil twin'. This was done via the 122-foot-wide Deep Space Station 13 (DSS-13) radio dish antenna located at the Deep Space Network (DSN) Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California. The DSN is equipped with a variety of enormous radio antennas that enable missions to monitor, communicate with, and receive data from spacecraft.
Notably, this is the first time hip-hop has been transmitted into orbit. Until now, the system had only sent one other song into space. The song "Across the Universe" by the Beatles, was beamed to the North Star in 2008.
She took to social media and wrote, "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."
NASA said in a statement, "Both space exploration and Missy Elliott's art have been about pushing boundaries. 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."
Glen Nagle, a representative for the Deep Space Network located in Canberra, Australia, told the New York Times that NASA's partnership with Ms Elliott was an integral element of this tradition and a means of attracting a new generation of "scientists, explorers and dreamers." "Artists such as Missy Elliott and the Beatles have had their music beamed into space to inspire humanity to think about Earth's place in the cosmos - and maybe others, if they're out there to hear it," he said.
