This footage was shot in 2011 by an ordinary GoPro HD Hero camera, 82 km above the Earth’s surface, on the first SQUID student rocket project. The camera returned to Earth and was recovered. Many have noted the “Slinky,” which seems very much like that venerable toy (and even sounds like it on the GoPro’s original audio) but was actually part of the camera mount.
I am adding a few notes about the soundtrack I composed.
1) Chuck Berry has indeed been to outer space. In 1977, the spacecraft Voyager sent a “golden record” into space, with greetings in 55 languages (including ancient Greek and Latin), natural and man-made sounds of Earth, and music: 27 selections from many of the human race’s varied cultures. One of the three American contributions was Berry singing “Johnny B. Goode.” There is an old joke from the venerable comedy program Saturday Night Live: After Voyager sent the Golden Record into space, several generations of space scientists waited more than a hundred years for a response. Finally a faint signal was detected. Four words: “Send More Chuck Berry.”
2) The instrumental guitar version of Berry’s “Memphis Tennessee” that starts in the middle is an improvisation played by Sandy Bull in 1965. His music was a precursor to the “jam band” like the Grateful Dead and others. Among people I knew in the mid-60s, it was cool to listen to Bull (he improvised on banjo, oud and other instruments too) while smoking marijuana, and say stuff like “oh wow, this is really cool”…
Speaking of Memphis, it has been hugely important in American music and broader history, in very good ways and also very bad.
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