Ongoing History Daily: Weezer in space!
What do Chuck Berry, Blur, and Imagine Dragons all have in common? Their music has been sent to space. We can also add Weezer to that list.
In about 2010, NASA contacted the band to say that they were looking for a song to accompany the Juno mission to Jupiter. Rivers Cuomo was stoked and submitted a song called “I Love the USA.” Its inspiration was being far from home on tour, and also from time spent on a beach hanging out with strangers that he met up with on Tinder and Twitter. This seemed appropriate for a probe being sent halfway across the solar system.
“I Love the USA” was loaded aboard the spacecraft, which launched on August 5, 2011. After five years, it went into orbit around Jupiter. It’s still there, too, although there are plans to de-orbit the probe into the planet in September, taking Weezer with it.
