Alongside its serious objectives, like testing the Orion capsule in deep space and imaging lava flow remnants on the lunar surface, NASA's Artemis 2 lunar mission had its whimsy, too.
For example, there was a beloved moon toy named "Rise" on the mission serving as a zero-gravity indicator and holding a microchip with the names of space fans who signed up to have their presence enter the lunar arena. There were also the "wakeup songs," a tradition carried on from previous crewed missions. These are exactly what you'd expect. Each day, at the designated wakeup time for the Artemis 2 crew, Mission Control radioed in to Orion and played a short snippet of a song to help them start their day with positivity.
The tunes included a cover of Passion Pit's "Sleepyhead" by the artist Young & Sick, which mission specialist Christina Koch has taken credit for, "Good Morning" by Mandisa and TobyMac, which pilot Victor Glover says his wife chose, and Chappell Roan's "Pink Pony Club," which commander Reid Wiseman says is his responsibility. Playing that last one actually led to some sass from the crew because Mission Control turned it off before the main part. "We were all eagerly awaiting the chorus," Wiseman said. And Koch later said during a broadcast that she was singing it all day because of the cut-off. So, naturally, we had to make a Spotify playlist of the Artemis 2 mission soundtrack. (Out of curiosity, we also asked each member of our editorial staff to pick one ideal song to add to a theoretical wakeup playlist. Here's the Spotify for our future mission.)
Here are the songs so far:
Flight Day 1: "Sleepyhead" by Young & Sick
Flight Day 2: "Green Light" by John Legend (feat. André 3000)
Flight Day 3: "In a Daydream" by Freddy Jones Band
Flight Day 4: "Pink Pony Club" by Chappell Roan
Flight Day 5: "Working Class Heroes (Work)" by CeeLo Green
Flight Day 6: "Good Morning" by Mandisa, TobyMac
Flight Day 7: "Tokyo Drifting" by Denzel Curry and Glass Animals
Flight Day 8: "Under Pressure" by Queen and David Bowie
Flight Day 9: "Lonesome Drifter" by Charley Crockett
Flight Day 10: "Run to the Water" by Live
Technically, there was also a bonus track on Flight Day 10: "Free" by Zac Brown Band. However, it wasn't quite a wakeup song because it was part of the post-wakeup song message that's customary for each day. Thus, we decided to leave it off our official list. Zac Brown Band itself wished the crew good luck after a short snippet of the song played.
NASA's use of these songs also appears to have had an impact on Spotify listener behavior. According to Spotify, "Sleepyhead" by Young & Sick peaked at a 2,100% increase in global streams on April 5 and "Working Class Heroes (Work)" by CeeLo Green saw a more than 1,700% increase on the same day.
Astronaut wakeup calls go back to the Apollo years. For instance, the Apollo 10 astronauts had the song "It's Nice to Go Trav'ling" by Frank Sinatra as one of their wakeup calls, and Apollo 15 had the theme song from "2001: A Space Odyssey."
The space shuttle program had tons of wakeup calls of their own. For example, STS-134 Pilot Greg Johnson's son chose "Drops of Jupiter" to play for his dad during that 2011 mission — to which Johnson said, "I love that song, and I love being in space," before apologizing for missing his son's birthday. That same mission, the second-to-last of the shuttle program, also had "Il Mio Pensiero," performed by Ligabue for mission specialist Roberto Vittori.
During the final space shuttle mission, STS-135, Pilot Doug Hurley selected Coldplay's "Viva la Vida" to be played (and later picked "Don't Panic" for another day). R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe also personally sent an a capella version of "Man on the Moon" for the crew.
An in-depth list of these historical wakeup songs can be found in this document, which also features some of the cute and, yes, whimsical banter between astronauts and Mission Control. What a lovely tradition.
