Yesterday, as part of the Polaris Dawn mission, SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis became the youngest person to walk in space. Today, on a space-qualified violin, she performed Rey’s Theme, composed by John Williams as the musical leitmotif for Rey, the central character in the Star Wars movie The Force Awakens.
The performance audio and video were transmitted to Earth via SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network and were accompanied by performances of Earth-based musical ensembles. As space travel expands, musicians, artists, and poets will increasingly travel and live beyond Earth.
Sarah Gillis plays a Star Wars theme aboard the Polaris Dawn SpaceX Dragon spacecraft during orbital night.
Gillis with violin during orbital day. Polaris Dawn experiences a sunset and sunrise about every 106 minutes.