Ongoing History Daily: Songs in space

A lot of music has been played in space starting with a Ukrainian folk song called “Watching the Sky and Thinking a Thought” performed by cosmonaut Pavlo Popovych on August 12, 1962 aboard Vostok 4. The first song performed with musical instruments came on December 16, 1965, when astronauts Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford played “Jingle Bells” using a harmonica and some bells aboard Gemini 6. If you’ve seen the movie Apollo 13, you’ll remember the scene where Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky” was played.

There are examples of other songs in space including Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” on the “Sounds of Earth” Golden Records affixed to the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft. Then, of course, there’s Canadian ISS Commander Chris Hadfield who regular sang and played guitar for the planet while in orbit.

So all music in space is fine, right? Not really. That’s next time