Update: RUSH's 'Countdown' Wakes Up Space Shuttle Endeavour Crew; Video Online, Mission Specialist Mike Fincke Comments
May 26, 2011, 13 years ago
Last night (May 25th) at around 8 PM (EST) a one-minute, edited clip of RUSH's 'Countdown', from 1982's Signals album, was beamed to the Space Shuttle Endeavour as the wake-up music for the Shuttle crew, specifically at the request of Mission Specialist Mike Fincke.
Here's what Mike had to say after hearing the wake-up: "Good morning to you all down in Houston and across the planet. I just wanted to say thanks for the song. That was by the band Rush and my friends Ken Fisher and Greg (last name?) sent that up for me. And Rush was really inspired by the launch of STS-1 so they included that in their music and it was really inspirational for them and for the whole album. What's really cool about it is that the Space Shuttle program has really inspired everybody across our planet for such a long time. So this song was a tribute to the Space Shuttle program and so we'd like to say good morning."
You can watch the video that was shown yesterday evening on NASA TV below. This is the final flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour (mission STS-134) and the second to last Space Shuttle mission (STS-135 will be the last and is scheduled for July).