“The Blue Danube” from 2001: A Space Odyssey to Be Transmitted to Voyager 1

On May 31, Voyager 1 will receive a truly one-of-a-kind musical tribute. In celebration of Johann Strauss II’s 200th birthday, the European Space Agency (ESA) will send a live performance of The Blue Danube waltz into deep space, directed straight to NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft.

Kubrick’s Iconic Musical Choice

When Stanley Kubrick was editing his cinematic masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey, he initially used classical library tracks as placeholders for a planned original score by composer Alex North. But as the editing progressed, Kubrick realized the classical selections captured the tone of the film more effectively than the commissioned music—so he made the bold decision to keep them in.

Among the standout pieces was Strauss’s The Blue Danube, famously used during the elegant scene where a Pan Am space shuttle docks with a rotating space station, often described as a ballet in zero gravity. The waltz became iconic, contributing to the film’s commercial success and musical legacy. The soundtrack reached gold status, climbing to No. 24 on the Billboard 200, No. 2 on Billboard’s Classical LP chart, and No. 3 in the UK Albums Chart.

The composition, along with Also Sprach Zarathustra, became deeply ingrained in popular culture, with The Blue Danube gaining a nickname as the “unofficial anthem of space.”

A Musical Omission from the Golden Record

Back in 1977, when NASA launched Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 on their grand tour of the outer planets and into interstellar space, each spacecraft carried the famous Golden Record—an ambitious attempt to communicate Earth’s culture to any extraterrestrial finders. The record included a diverse collection of sounds and music, but despite The Blue Danube’s space association, it was left out due to the project’s eclectic and idealistic musical curation.

Now, the Vienna Tourist Board, ESA, and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra aim to correct that oversight. They plan to send the waltz directly to Voyager 1 during a special event described as the first interstellar live concert.

On May 31, 2025, at 12:30 PM PDT (8:30 PM CET), the Vienna Symphony Orchestra—under the direction of chief conductor Petr Popelka—will perform a selection of works at Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts (MAK). The centerpiece, The Blue Danube, will be transmitted in real-time to ESA’s Deep Space Antenna DSA 2 in Cebreros, Spain, from where it will be beamed into space. The signal will travel nearly 24.9 billion kilometers, taking 23 hours and 3 minutes to reach Voyager 1.

Global Viewing for a Cosmic Performance

The performance will be streamed live via space.vienna.info, the Vienna Tourist Board’s Instagram (@vienna), and at public venues including Vienna’s Strandbar Herrmann, New York’s Bryant Park, and outside the DSA 2 station in Spain.

While the precision transmission will be directed at Voyager 1, the aging spacecraft likely won’t be able to receive it. Its 1970s-era hardware may not support the signal’s format or speed, and the onboard receiver can’t filter modern interstellar noise. Still, the beam will continue on its journey through space, possibly reaching the star AC+79 3888 in about 17 light-years—assuming the star hasn’t drifted from its current position.

The event celebrates multiple milestones: Strauss’s 200th birthday, Vienna’s “King of Waltz. Queen of Music” campaign (with Strauss as King and the city as Queen), ESA’s 50th anniversary, the 20-year mark of Deep Space Antenna DSA 2, five decades of ESA’s Estrack deep space tracking network, and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra’s 125th anniversary.

A Space Ballet for the Cosmos

In 2001: A Space Odyssey, ‘The Blue Danube’ accompanies the majestic motion of spacecraft docking with a space station,” said Jan Nast, director of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. “Kubrick chose the waltz to highlight the elegance and poetry of movement in space—a true ballet in the cosmos. No other piece connects music and the universe as powerfully as Strauss’s waltz, which has become the anthem of space. With ‘Waltz into Space,’ we’re now performing for a potentially extraterrestrial audience for the very first time. It’s a continuation of our founding goal: to make the beauty of symphonic music accessible to ever wider audiences.

Read the original article on: New Atlas

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