Strauss’ “Blue Danube” Waltz to Be Broadcast into Space for Composer’s 200th Birthday

Johann Strauss’ iconic “Blue Danube” waltz is set to soar into space on May 31, marking the 200th anniversary of the Austrian composer’s birth. The Vienna Symphony Orchestra will perform the piece in a special event celebrating both Strauss and the 50th anniversary of the European Space Agency (ESA). The music will be transmitted as radio signals into the cosmos during the orchestra’s performance, which will be livestreamed globally with free public screenings in Vienna, Madrid, and New York. While live audio conversion is technically feasible, ESA officials will use a pre-recorded version captured during a rehearsal to avoid technical complications, while the orchestra provides live accompaniment. Traveling at the speed of light—approximately 670 million mph (over 1 billion kph)—the musical signals will reach the moon in about 1.5 seconds, Mars in 4.5 minutes, Jupiter in 37 minutes, and Neptune in four hours. Within 23 hours, the signals will be as far from Earth as NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft, now over 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) away in interstellar space.