Astronauts wake up to REM's "Man on the moon"

By Jack Brummet
Aerospace Editor

NASA reported today that today’s astronaut wakeup song was ‘Man on the Moon,” by R.E.M.  The transmission to the shuttle also includes a message from Michael Stipe:

“Good morning, Atlantis. This is Michael Stipe from R.E.M. We wish you much success on your mission and thank all the women and men at NASA who have worked on the shuttle for three decades. From Earth, a very good morning to you.”

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Technical Difficulties: Endeavor shuttle launch postponed. With space music by Lou Reed and David Bowie

 

By Jack Brummet,
Extraterrestrial Affairs Editor

NASA this morning delayed the launch of the space shuttle Endeavour for at least two days because of a technical problem.
 

This is a bit of a sad launch, since it is our last scheduled one.  For the foreseeable future, any astronauts we send up will be hitching a ride with the Russians, or on one of the several private space vehicles soon to be deployed.

In honor of this final launch, a video of my favorite astronaut song -- David Bowie's Space Oddity.

http://youtu.be/uhSYbRiYwTY

And then, there's Lou Reed's great tune Satellite Of Love:

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