NASA is inviting the public to vote for its favorite original song to wake up space shuttle Commander Mark Kelly and his five crewmates during their STS-134 mission to the International Space Station. Voting runs from Tuesday, March 29 through launch day, which currently is targeted for April 19. Vote here
Electronic voting is open to the public on NASA's Space Rock website, which includes the songs, inspiration and biographical information about the 10 finalists:
Songwriters and performers from around the world submitted 1,350 songs, including 693 from 47 states, 105 from Canada, and 552 from 61 other countries. The song contest began Aug. 20, 2010 and ended Jan. 31. The finalists were notified on Feb. 18.
Below are the original song finalists (alphabetical by song title):
"Boogie Woogie Shuttle," by Ryan McCullough (Savannah, Ga.)
"Dreams You Give," by Brian Plunkett (Halfway, Mo.)
"Endeavour, It's a Brand New Day," by Susan Rose Simonetti (Cocoa Beach, Fla.)
"I Need My Space," by Stan Clardy (Statesville, N.C.)
"I Want to Be an Astronaut," by Michael J. Kunes (Phoenix)
"Just Another Day in Space," by Kurt Lanham (Jacksonville, Fla.)
"Rocket Scientist," by Tray Eppes (Cullen, Va.)
"Spacing Out," by Jeremy Parsons (Nashville, Tenn.)
"Sunrise Number 1," by Jorge Otero (Ovideo, Spain)
"The Countdown Blues (Hymn for Tim)," by Sharon Riddell (Nashville, Tenn.)
The two songs with the most votes will be the first original songs chosen by the public to be played as wakeup music for a shuttle crew. The STS-134 Original Song Contest ran concurrently with the Top 40 Song Contest for shuttle Discovery's STS-133 mission. The Top 40 Song Contest ended earlier this month.
