Wake-up call (NASA)
The wake-up call marks the beginning of a working day from NASA - astronauts . In space is the term "wake-up call" and is based on the services of hotels, where the doorman at the request of the guest at a specific time per call wakes up on the room phone.
tradition
It has been NASA's long-standing tradition for ground control to wake up astronauts in space with a personal greeting . To do this, the first radio call of the day begins with playing a song, followed by greetings and wishes to the team, whereupon the team responds to the radio call accordingly. While radio communication is usually characterized by work instructions and technical information, the wake-up call is the only exchange of personal impressions and is also often used by astronauts to greet their own families. The pieces of music played are usually selected by the family members of the astronauts.
The repertoire of the songs played so far is broad and ranges from songs by the Beach Boys ( STS-107 , 14th flight day, Team Blue), the Bay City Rollers ( STS-92 , 11th flight day) to the ketchup song by Las Ketchup ( STS-113 , 12th day of flight). "Front runner" of the wake-up calls is What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong and I'll Be Home for Christmas for crews that are in space at the end of the year. Foreign crew members are often greeted with folk songs from their homeland. For example, the Japanese Noguchi Sōichi , a member of the Space Shuttle Crew STS-114 , was the recipient of the wake-up call for the fifth day of flight, which was greeted with the Japanese song Sanpo in the version of the choir of the Japanese School of Houston. On the day STS-114 landed, Good Day Sunshine was played by the Beatles .
Sometimes the wake-up call is made twice a day. This is always the case when a mission consists of several crew members who are divided into two shifts (“Team Red” or “Team Blue”) for an optimal workflow.
The crews also used the wake-up calls to present their own comedy interludes to the sounds and to record them on video, which were ultimately broadcast by the television stations. NASA felt this was a negative image, as the news would primarily only represent the fun you can have in space. From NASA's point of view, reporting on the actual work in orbit fell by the wayside. In this respect, it was decided from 1989 to forego comedy performances of any kind as part of the wake-up calls and to limit oneself to pure pieces of music that should not be played for longer than two minutes.
Curious wake-up calls
- STS-2 was greeted twice with passages from the Muppet Show , both greetings came from the sketch series "Pigs in Space".
- STS-26 was not awakened by the usual musical greeting on September 30, 1988. Rather, a NASA employee previously contacted the actor Robin Williams . He was the leading actor in the film Good Morning, Vietnam . In it he plays a radio presenter who greets the US soldiers stationed in Vietnam with the extended exclamation "Good Morning, Vietnam!" Similarly, Williams was ready to record a wake-up call that began with the words "Good Morning, Discovery!"
- On November 13, 2005, ISS Expedition 12 was awakened by a live broadcast of Good Day Sunshine by Paul McCartney .
German-language wake-up calls
| flight | Flight day | piece of music | Artist | astronaut |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| STS-122 | 4th | Men | Herbert Grönemeyer | Hans Schlegel |
| STS-122 | 9. | Marble, stone and iron breaks | Drafi German | Hans Schlegel |
Web links
- Chronological overview of NASA's wake-up calls (pdf, English; 475 kB)
Individual evidence
- ^ Paul McCartney Provides First-Ever Live Station Wakeup Music. From: nasa.gov , accessed January 6, 2019.
- ↑ Information on the STS-122