Venus’s temperature hovers around 870 degrees, but the second-closest planet to the sun has gotten a little cooler recently, as NASA broadcast Missy Elliott’s hit song “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” to Venus.
The feat occurred at 10:05 a.m. on July 12, when NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at La Cañada Flintridge beamed through a 112-foot-wide radio dish near Barstow, California. The antenna beamed the song.
The signal traveled through the solar system at the speed of light, taking only 14 minutes and traveling approximately 158 million miles.
Coincidentally, the transmitter is also named Venus and is part of the Deep Space Network (DSN). The network is a collection of radio antennas used to track, send commands and receive scientific data from spacecraft traveling to the moon and elsewhere in the solar system.
Elliott, who released the song on July 15, 1997, was honored by NASA. It was the first hip-hop song broadcast into space by NASA, and only the second song ever. The Beatles’ “Across the Universe” was the first.
The “Evening Star” – also known as the “Morning Star” when visible at sunrise – is the artist’s favorite planet.
“When ‘The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)’ became the first hip-hop song transmitted into space, I still couldn’t believe I was leaving this world with NASA on the Deep Space Network!” Elliott said at the U.S. Space Agency the department said in a statement before the event. “I chose Venus because it symbolizes strength, beauty and empowerment, and I am honored to have the opportunity to share my art and my message with the universe!”
NASA’s collaboration with the futuristic artist comes as the agency prepares for two upcoming unmanned Venus missions, which aim to collect data about the mysterious planet, whose atmosphere is mainly composed of carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid Cloud formation creates uninhabitable conditions for Earthlings.
The collaboration was a perfect fit because “space exploration and Missy Elliott’s art both push boundaries,” said NASA spokesperson Brittany Brown, who initially contacted Elliott’s team ,she says.
The interstellar music release takes place on the second night of Elliott’s space-themed “Out of This World” tour, her first major tour in her 30-year career, at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. A few days ago, the famous Cancerian celebrated her birthday with a free party for fans in downtown Los Angeles, complete with an air show featuring elaborate drones that mimicked her face and the shape of a flying saucer.
Elliott’s longtime production partner Timbaland, rapper Busta Rhymes and singer Ciara opened for Elliott.
The “Get Ur Freak On” singer once again wowed fans with dancers in glow-in-the-dark costumes, projections of spaceships and animations of Elliot dressed as an astronaut and smiling as he glides across the universe. Fans received wristbands with remote-controlled lights that flashed like stars to the beat.
At the end of the show, Elliot is lifted up on a hydraulic riser, with smoke puffing out around her, as if she’s ascending to heaven on a mother ship.
