Space Shuttle Discovery is finishing up its final mission, a 13-day visit to the International Space Station. The ship will make its final landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday after which it will be retired. For those of us who have grown up with Discovery, it’s a little sad to see it retire.
Each morning, a special song usually picked by their families awakens the astronauts on board. For this last mission NASA decided to hold an online contest to allow fans to pick the songs. Nearly 2.5 million votes were cast between August 20, 2010 and November 1, 2010 Alexander Courage‘s theme song to the original Star Trek television series was the second most popular song of the ones available getting 671,133 votes or 27.2% of the total votes.
William Shatner stepped into his role one more time as Captain James T. Kirk to recite a custom version of the original Star Trek introduction that he recited for that series back in 1966. That introduction and familiar tune woke the astronauts this morning.
The reworked introduction went like this:
“These have been the voyages of the space shuttle Discovery,” Shatner said in the pre-recorded wakeup call that mimicked his opening to 1960s “Star Trek” TV series. “Her 30-year mission: to seek out new science, to build new outposts, to bring nations together in the final frontier, to boldly go and do what no spacecraft has done before.”
“That was, I believe, the second most popular selection from the song contest for the space shuttle program,” shuttle commander Steve Lindsey said. “I’d like to thank, specifically, William Shatner, for taking the time to record that special introduction for us.”
The number one song, “Blue Sky,” by Big Head Todd and The Monsters will play for them tomorrow, the last full mission day.
[Source: Space.com | Photo Source: NASA TV]
wow – this really is the future: “Nearly 2.5 million votes were cast between August 20, 2010 and November 1, 2011.” ROTFLOL……
Comment by ptjackson — March 8, 2011 @ 8:25 pm