John Chuldenko

I think about Voyager 1 often. The brave little spacecraft is 15 billion miles from home, trudging his way through interstellar space all alone in the void. On board is the “Golden Record,” A collection of greetings, sounds, and music from the Earth. Among them is “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground” by Texas bluesman Blind Willie Johnson. This penultimate track on the record is probably the loneliest song I have ever heard.

Voyager also carries onboard a plaque in case he’s found someday, and it holds a special significance to me. “This is a present from a small distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts, and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours. We hope someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination, and our good will in a vast and awesome universe.”
— Jimmy Carter

Happy 100th, Papa.

#voyager #nasa

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