JACKSONVILLE, FLA – On May 31, 2025, humanity will send a piece of its soul into the stars — not with rockets or probes, but with a melody.
In a first-of-its-kind event, Johann Strauss II’s “Blue Danube” waltz will be transmitted into deep space following a live performance by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, commemorating both the composer’s 200th birthday and the 50th anniversary of the European Space Agency (ESA).
The waltz, long associated with celestial imagery thanks to its iconic use in “2001: A Space Odyssey,” was notably left off NASA’s Voyager Golden Record, the 1977 time capsule designed to carry the sounds of Earth to the stars.
Curated by Carl Sagan, the Golden Record includes greetings in 55 languages, natural sounds of the planet, and an eclectic sampling of music from around the world. While it contains Bach, Beethoven, and Blind Willie Johnson, it lacks Strauss’s sweeping sonic tribute to Earth’s flowing rivers — and by metaphor, the flowing fabric of time and space.
That omission will be symbolically corrected on May 31.
Following the live performance at Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts, a pristine recording of the “Blue Danube” will be transmitted from ESA’s Cebreros deep-space antenna in Spain. The radio signal, traveling at 186,000 miles per second, will:
- Reach the Moon in about 1.3 seconds
- Pass Mars in around 4.5 minutes
- Arrive at Voyager 1 — over 15 billion miles from Earth — in roughly 24 hours
Although Voyager 1 cannot receive or decode the transmission, the waltz’s broadcast is more than symbolic. It’s a cultural beacon, a digital echo of humanity launched into the infinite. The signal won’t stop at Voyager; it will keep going, a ripple in the electromagnetic sea — one of Earth’s most elegant musical phrases destined to travel forever through the void.
ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher emphasized the poetic magnitude of the moment:
“This broadcast will be a special moment that will show that music — just like space — connects all of humanity.”
How to Watch or Listen
Audiences can witness this historic performance and space-bound transmission:
- In Vienna: Attend the concert live at the Museum of Applied Arts at 8:30 p.m. CEST
- In New York City: Join a free public viewing at Bryant Park at 2:30 p.m. ET
- Online: Stream the event worldwide via the Symphony Orchestra’s website space.vienna.info/en-US/new-york-event