Jack White’s mission to play the first record in space has been accomplished.
On 30 July, A Glorious Dawn by composer John Boswell, mixed with audio of American scientist Carl Sagan describing the universe, was played 28,000 metres above Earth on a “space-proof” turntable engineered to operate in the conditions.
The record played for about 80 minutes until the high-altitude balloon which carried the contraption burst and propelled the turntable back towards Marsing, Idaho.
White, who founded Third Man Records which was behind the mission, said: “Our main goal from inception to completion of this project was to inject imagination and inspiration into the daily discourse of music and vinyl lovers.
“We hope that in meeting our goal we inspire others to dream big and start their own missions, whatever they may be.”
What goes up... pic.twitter.com/2Dw8zrrhwZ
— Third Man Records (@thirdmanrecords) July 30, 2016
The record had to be plated in gold to ensure the grooves kept their shape. Taking three years to create, the Icarus Craft was designed and engineered by Kevin Carrico, whose father John worked on Nasa’s Mars-Viking missions.
With the contraption exposed to direct sunlight, shade and without air, the record would be in a state of constant expansion and contraction.
“As you rise higher and higher into the thinning atmosphere, temperature and increasing vacuum (lack of air) can cause issues,” Carrico explained.
“Vinyl has a rather low melting point (71C/160F) and without air to keep things cool, you could wind up with a lump of melted plastic on your hands if a record is exposed to the sun for too long.”
Third Man Records wrote in a statement: “We could not be happier to check this longtime goal off its bucket list.”
You can watch the launch in its entirety here.
.jpg?w=600)
