Temperatures on Venus hover around 870 degrees, but the second-closest planet to the Sun recently cooled down a bit when NASA showered it with Missy Elliott's hit song, “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly).”
The feat took place at 10:05 a.m. on July 12, when NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge transmitted the song via a 112-foot-wide radio satellite dish near Barstow, California.
The signal crossed the solar system at the speed of light, traveling a distance of about 158 million miles in just 14 minutes.
The transmitter, which coincidentally is also named Venus, is part of the Deep Space Network (DSN). The network is a set of radio antennas used to track, send commands to and receive scientific data from spacecraft headed to the Moon and elsewhere in the solar system.
NASA catapulted Elliott, who released the song on July 15, 1997, into the record books. It was the first hip-hop song, and only the second song in history, to be broadcast into space by NASA. The Beatles’ “Across the Universe” was the first.
The “Evening Star,” also known as the “Morning Star” when visible at dawn, is the artist’s favorite planet.
“I still can’t believe I’m leaving this world with NASA via the Deep Space Network as ‘The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)’ becomes the first hip-hop song to be broadcast into space,” Elliott said in a NASA statement ahead of the event. “I chose Venus because it symbolizes strength, beauty and empowerment, and I’m so honored to have the opportunity to share my art and message with the universe!”
NASA's collaboration with the futurist artist comes as the agency prepares for two upcoming unmanned missions to Venus aimed at gathering data on the mysterious planet, where an atmosphere composed primarily of carbon dioxide and clouds of sulfuric acid create uninhabitable conditions for Earthlings.
The partnership is fitting because “both space exploration and Missy Elliott’s art have been about pushing boundaries,” said NASA spokeswoman Brittany Brown, who initially approached Elliott’s team.
The interplanetary musical release took place on the second night of Elliott’s space-themed “Out of This World” tour in Los Angeles at Crypto.com Arena, the first headlining tour of her three-decade career. And it came days after the Cancer star threw fans a free party in downtown Los Angeles to celebrate her birthday, which included an aerial show in which choreographed drones took the shape of her face and a flying saucer.
Elliott's opening act was his longtime production partner Timbaland, rapper Busta Rhymes and singer Ciara.
The “Get Ur Freak On” singer once again wowed fans with dancers in glow-in-the-dark costumes, spaceship projections and an animation of Elliott dressed as an astronaut smiling as she glides through the cosmos. Fans were given remote-controlled light-up wristbands that flashed like stars to the beat of the music.
At the end of the show, Elliott was lifted up by a hydraulic lift with jets of smoke surrounding her, as if she were ascending to the heavens in the mothership.
