Missy Elliott’s “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” became the first rap song to ever be transmitted into deep space last week when NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) beamed the Grammy Award-winning artist’s lyrics 158 million miles away to the planet Venus. Missy Misdemeanor’s iconic first single joins The Beatles’ “Across The Universe” as the only two songs ever transmitted into deep space.
NASA’s DSN is its largest, most sensitive telecommunication service, and its array of giant radio antennas near Barstow, California was used to make the transmission. The DSN is usually used to track, send commands and receive data from spacecraft venturing to the Moon and beyond, but it was also used to send Missy Elliott’s song into space, and it sent The Beatles’ song into space back in 2008.
Lyrics to Elliott’s song were transmitted via radio frequency signal at the speed of light, and took just 14 minutes to reach Venus. The antenna used was the 112-foot wide Deep Space Station 13 radio dish antenna, which is coincidentally nicknamed Venus. Brittany Brown, director of NASA’s Digital and Technology Division and Office of Communications was the person who pitched the idea to Elliott and her team. Brown 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.
Elliott is known for her groundbreaking, other worldly style, and frequent nods to the extraterrestrial – her current North American tour is called the Out of This World Tour – so it’s fitting that her song was transmitted to her favorite planet. Elliott wrote on X,
YOOO this is crazy! We just went #OutOfThisWorld with @NASA and sent the FIRST hip hop song into space through the Deep Space Network. My song “The Rain” has officially been transmitted all the way to Venus, the planet that symbolizes strength, beauty and empowerment. The sky is not the limit, it’s just the beginning