In honor of the 40th anniversary of the Beatles’ song “Across the Universe,” and the 50th anniversary of NASA’s founding (or at least, the launch of Explorer 1), today the space agency beamed the rock group’s song into deep space. At 7PM EST on 4 February, NASA transmitted the song over its Deep Space Network (the international network of antennas is celebrating its 45th anniversary).
The transmission was aimed at Polaris, the North Star, which is 431 light years away from Earth. Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney expressed excitement that the tune, which was principally written by fellow Beatle John Lennon, was being beamed into the cosmos. “Amazing! Well done, NASA!” McCartney said. “Send my love to the aliens. All the best, Paul.”
Yoko Ono, Lennon’s widow, called the transmission a significant event. “I see that this is the beginning of the new age in which we will communicate with billions of planets across the universe,” she said.
“I’ve been a Beatles fan for 45 years—as long as the Deep Space Network has been around,” said Dr. Barry Geldzahler, the network’s program executive at NASA Headquarters, Washington. “What a joy, especially considering that ‘Across the Universe’ is my personal favorite Beatles song.”
For more information on the Deep Space Network, which is operated by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, see this page.
Several Beatles songs have been used as wake-up music for manned space missions in the past, but this is the first time one was targeted not at humans in orbit, but much farther out.