NASA Transmits Missy Elliott’s Song to Venus via Deep Space Network

(Outer Space) Missy Elliott’s song, “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly),” was transmitted to Venus via the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s Deep Space Network (DSN) on Friday, July 12 at 10.05pm PDT (Saturday, July 13 at 1.05am EST / 05.05.00 GMT), becoming the first hip hop song to travel to outer space.

Photo of Missy Elliott during her “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” music video courtesy of Elliott’s YouTube Channel.

The song was transmitted from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California.

Previously, in 2018, the Beatles song “Across the Universe” became the first song ever to be sent to deep space by NASA, per The Free Press Journal.

"Both space exploration and Missy Elliott’s art have been about pushing boundaries," said Brittany Brown, director of the Digital and Technology Division of NASA’s Office of Communications. “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.”

NASA said the song traveled about 158 million miles (254 million km) from Earth to Venus, which is reportedly Missy Elliott’s favorite planet. The radio frequency signal was transmitted at the speed of light and took roughly 14 minutes to reach the planet.

The transmission was made by the 34-meter (112-foot) wide Deep Space Station 13 (DSS-13) radio dish antenna, located at the DSN’s Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex, near Barstow in California; DSS-13 also is nicknamed Venus, per NASA.

"I still can’t believe I’m going out of this world with NASA through the Deep Space Network when ‘The Rain’ (Supa Dupa Fly) becomes the first-ever hip-hop song to transmit to space!,” Missy Elliott said, per NASA. “I chose Venus because it symbolises strength, beauty, and empowerment and I am so humbled to have the opportunity to share my art and my message with the universe!”

Music video of Missy Elliott’s “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly) courtesy of Elliott’s YouTube channel.

Elliott is currently on her "Out of This World" tour and will perform at the Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado this evening (July 16th).

NASA described its DSN as “the largest and most sensitive telecommunication service of NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program” in a blog post yesterday. DSN has an array of giant radio antennas that allow missions to track, send commands and receive scientific data from spacecraft venturing to the Moon and beyond, according to the space agency.

This illlustration of the large Quetzalpetlatl Corona located in Venus’ southern hemisphere depicts active volcanism and a subduction zone, where the foreground crust plunges into the planet’s interior; a new study suggests coronae reveal locations where active geology is shaping Venus’ surface, according to NASA. Courtesy of NASA.

Two upcoming NASA missions – both initially selected in 2021 – will explore Venus and send data back to earth using the DSN:

• (1) DAVINCI (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging) is slated to launch by 2029; and

• (2) the VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy) mission is expected to launch by 2031.

NASA and the DSN are also partnering with the European Space Agency’s Venus mission, Envision, according to NASA, and a team at JPL is developing the spacecraft’s Venus Synthetic Aperture Radar (VenSAR).

NASA SCaN’s DSN has been in In continuous operations since 1963, and is composed of three complexes spaced equidistant from each other — approximately 120 degrees apart in longitude — around the planet, per NASA. DSN’s ground stations are in Goldstone in California, Madrid, and Canberra in Australia.

The Deep Space Network is managed by JPL for the SCaN program within the Space Operations Mission Directorate, which is based at NASA Headquarters.