Noisy neighbour: The Earth randomly blasted Venus with a Missy Elliott hip-hop song last week, because why not?

Imagine relaxing alone in the vastness of space, with everyone you know too far away to interrupt your solitude, only for your distant neighbour to start blasting loud music at you! That's exactly what happened to Venus last Friday (July 12), when it got beamed by a hip-hop track courtesy of Earth and its noisy “intelligent” life.

The song chosen for this cosmic broadcast was ‘The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)’ by Missy Elliott. Explaining this choice, Brittany Brown, director of the Digital and Technology Division at NASA’s Office of Communications, said: “Both space exploration and Missy Elliott's art have been about pushing boundaries. Missy has a track record of infusing space-centric storytelling and futuristic visuals in her music videos, so the opportunity to collaborate on something out of this world is truly fitting.”

Transmitted at the speed of light, the song journeyed approximately 254 million kilometres from Earth to Venus, completing the trip in just 14 minutes.


Now for the billion-dollar question: Why was this done? The truth is, we don’t exactly know.

NASA's news release didn’t specify a particular purpose. However, it might have been intended to mark a historic first for both NASA and Missy Elliott, while also promoting space exploration, the agency's upcoming Venus missions, and the shared values of pushing boundaries and inspiring the public through innovative collaborations.

What it certainly showcases is the remarkable capability of NASA’s technology. This transmission was made possible by NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN), which used the largest and most sensitive telecommunication service of NASA's Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program. The DSN's array of giant radio antennas allows missions to track, send commands and receive scientific data from spacecraft exploring the moon and beyond.

The song was beamed by the 34-metre (112-foot) wide Deep Space Station 13 (DSS-13) radio dish antenna, located at the DSN's Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex near Barstow, California. Coincidentally, the DSS-13 is also nicknamed Venus.

To date, the system has transmitted only one other song into space—The Beatles' ‘Across the Universe’—making the transmission of Elliott's song a groundbreaking moment for both hip-hop and NASA.