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| Paul McCartney pays tribute
to the crew of STS-114 during a concert in his current tour.
Image credit: NASA |
Paul McCartney provides first-ever live station wakeup music
The International Space Station crew, 220 miles above Earth, will
receive a special live musical wakeup call from Paul McCartney Sunday
during a first-ever concert linkup.
The wakeup will come from McCartney's 'US' Tour performance at
the Anaheim, Calif., Arrowhead Pond. McCartney plans to play two
songs, "Good Day Sunshine" and "English Tea,"
for NASA Astronaut Bill McArthur and Russian Cosmonaut Valery Tokarev.
This is the first time a live concert will be linked to a U.S. spacecraft.
The call will take place at 12:55 a.m. EST, Sunday, Nov. 13 (9:55
p.m. PST, Nov. 12) as the concert is nearing its end; and McArthur
and Tokarev are awakening for the 44th day of their six month mission
in space. It will be broadcast live on NASA TV, with video expected
of McArthur and Tokarev and audio from both locations.
During his tour, McCartney has paid tribute to the crew of Space
Shuttle Discovery's STS-114 mission, a flight to the space station
last summer. On Aug. 9, the Beatles' classic "Good Day Sunshine"
was played as a wakeup call for Discovery's crew because of a favorable
weather forecast for landing that morning.
"I was extremely proud to find out that one of my songs was
played for the crew of Discovery this summer," McCartney said.
"In our concert we hope to repay the favor." McCartney
is nearing the end of his 11-week "US" tour.
"Since people were first awakened on the moon by mission control,
wakeup songs have been a space tradition to brighten the crew's
day and get them off to a great start," said astronaut Eileen
Collins, who commanded Discovery. "We're honored that Paul
McCartney will be a part of this historic delivery of music for
Bill and Valery. It will surely give them a big boost as they continue
through their research mission."
McArthur and Tokarev are the 12th crew of the station, which has
had a continuous human presence for more than five years. The station
has an internal volume larger than an average three-bedroom house
and includes the most sophisticated space laboratory ever flown.
NASA TV's Public, Education and Media channels are available on
an MPEG-2 digital C-band signal accessed via satellite AMC-6, at
72 degrees west longitude, transponder 17C, 4040 MHz, vertical polarization.
In Alaska and Hawaii, they're on AMC-7 at 137 degrees west longitude,
transponder 18C, at 4060 MHz, horizontal polarization. A Digital
Video Broadcast compliant Integrated Receiver Decoder is required
for reception. For digital downlink information for each NASA TV
channel and access to NASA TV's Public Channel on the Web, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
For more information about the space station and the crew's mission
on the Web, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station
For more information about McCartney, visit:
http://www.paulmccartney.com
For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/home
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