Queen's Brian May reacts to 'Under Pressure' waking Artemis II crew
NASA used Queen and David Bowie's 1981 hit to wake astronauts on day eight of the 10-day lunar mission.
12:21 PM
NASA revealed the Artemis II wake-up playlist Wednesday, featuring songs selected by members of the astronaut crew. "Under Pressure," Queen's collaboration with David Bowie, was among the tracks used to wake the crew on day eight of the 10-day mission.
The song, released as a single in October 1981, later appeared on Queen's 1982 album Hot Space. It reached number one in the United Kingdom and was a top-40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. The track was later sampled by Vanilla Ice for his hit "Ice Ice Baby."
Queen guitarist Brian May, who holds a degree in astrophysics, reacted to the news on Instagram. "Honoured" by the selection, May wrote: "Happy to be waking up the heroes in their space ship rounding up their amazing trip around the Moon!! Happy Landings guys !! You rock !!! Bri."
The Artemis II crew includes Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen and NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, and Victor Glover. The astronauts are aboard the Orion spacecraft as it travels to the moon.