Call it “American Idol” in space: NASA has launched a new contest that allows the public to pick – or even create – wake-up songs for astronauts flying on the agency’s two final space shuttle missions.
NASA opened its new “Wake-up Song Contest” website Friday to allow the public to choose from a list of 40 previously played songs in the hopes of having it played during the final flight of space shuttle Discovery in November. Voting is going on now here.
Traditionally, wake-up songs are chosen by an astronaut's family and friends. But with the new website, Earth-bound masses will choose two songs to rouse Discovery's crew during the 11-day mission.
The songs with the most votes win, NASA officials said. Discovery’s upcoming flight will deliver a humanoid robot and storage room to the International Space Station.
The project is modeled after NASA’s “Face in Space” program which allows the public to send photos of themselves on the final space shuttle missions.
Full story: SPACE.com — Rock Out In Space: NASA Lets Public Pick Wake-Up Songs for Astronauts.