Soundtrack of Space: Celebrating 26 Years on the International Space Station

Soundtrack of Space: Celebrating 26 years of Continuous Human Presence aboard the International Space Station. The Astronaut Agency and National Astronaut Day® present a playlist of 26 Astronaut Music Memories & Moments from Space — from wake-up calls and spacewalk sunrises to the first music video filmed in space and live Earth-to-orbit duets.

BOSTON, Nov. 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- For 26 years, the International Space Station (ISS) has had a soundtrack. Since Expedition 1 crew members William Shepherd, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev arrived on November 2, 2000, humans have lived and worked aboard the ISS without a break — and Astronauts have carried music with them every step of the way.

Music has been part of station life almost from the start. According to NASA, space psychologists included instruments in the crew support program after seeing music lift cosmonauts' well-being on Mir. The first instrument, an acoustic guitar, reached the ISS in August 2001, and an electronic keyboard followed that December. Since then, crews have played flutes, a koto, bagpipes and a saxophone that still lives aboard.

The Astronaut Agency and National Astronaut Day® press play on that history with Soundtrack of Space: 26 Astronaut Music Memories & Moments and a playlist of songs chosen personally, or music moments created, by Astronauts. Each track recalls wake-up calls, a spacewalk sunrise, a crew movie or a history-making performance beamed between Earth and orbit.

Music is how Astronauts kept a piece of Earth with them in orbit — and their stories are how they bring a piece of orbit back to us. A song lasts about three minutes, but an Astronaut's story, shared from a stage, a classroom or a screen, carries the lessons of orbit into the room and inspires long after the music fades.

"Only a select few have ever called the International Space Station home — and between critical research and outreach, they still made time to share levity and joy through music on their journey. They spend months away from the people they love, take on risks most of us never will, and come home with lessons you can only learn by looking back at our precious planet from 250 miles up. Shared on stage, those lessons become like a favorite song that finds you when you need it most. Music carried them through orbit; their stories inspire the rest of us and carry us through everything else — and our team is honored to help bring them to audiences around the world." — Annie Balliro, President & CEO, uniphigood, LLC & The Astronaut Agency

Why the ISS Matters

According to NASA, the station is humanity's home in space and one of the most complex international collaborations ever attempted:

• A global crew: More than 280 individuals from 26 countries and five International Partners — NASA, Roscosmos, ESA, JAXA and the Canadian Space Agency — have visited.
• Built by hand in orbit: The largest humanmade object ever to orbit Earth, about the size of a football field, was assembled by spacewalking Astronauts — more spacewalks than all prior programs combined.
• Science for life on Earth: A U.S. National Laboratory since 2005, it returns research in human health, biology and materials science to benefit people on Earth and prepare for deep space.
• Inspiring the next generation: Every partner agency uses the station to motivate students toward STEM careers. Orbiting about 250 miles up, it flies over 90% of the inhabited Earth — and it will keep working through at least 2030.
• A beacon of peace and cooperation: Last, but certainly not least, for 26 years the ISS has stood as a beacon of international peace and cooperation, with crews from many nations living and working side by side in orbit — a message more poignant and relevant today than ever. The station itself is built from pieces contributed across the partnership: America's Destiny laboratory and Unity, Harmony and Tranquility nodes, Russia's Zvezda service module, Europe's Columbus laboratory, Japan's Kibo module and Canada's Canadarm2 robotic arm. Each partner operates the hardware it provides, and the station was designed from the outset to depend on all of them.

Soundtrack of Space: 26 Astronaut Music Memories & Moments in Space

From history-making performances to personal wake-up songs, every track was chosen, performed by or part of an Astronaut moment aboard the ISS.

Listen to the full playlist here: [PLAYLIST LINK]

ACT 1 - LIFTOFF

1. Thomas Pesquet • Coldplay — "Higher Power" — On May 6, 2021, Coldplay premiered their new single aboard the ISS. With the European Space Agency, the band video-called the French astronaut, who played the song's new alien-hologram music video on his iPad in the station's Cupola — a "one-man concert" in orbit.

2. Alexander Gerst • Kraftwerk — "Spacelab" — On July 20, 2018, the ESA astronaut played the melody live from orbit on an iPad synthesizer alongside co-founder Ralf Hütter at Stuttgart's Jazz Open Festival.

3. Luca Parmitano • Didier Marouani & spAce — "Magic Fly" — On June 29, 2013, he played keyboard from orbit with the band in Moscow. In August 2019, as DJ Astro Luca, he became the first person to DJ a party from space, spinning a 12-minute set for 3,000 people on a ship off Ibiza.

4. STS-132 Crew • MUSE – "Supermassive Black Hole" On May 26, 2010, the English rock band Muse served as a cosmic wake-up call for the crew of the Space Shuttle Atlantis (Mission STS-132)

ACT 2: GOOD MORNING STATION

5. Bill McArthur & Valeri Tokarev • Paul McCartney — "Good Day Sunshine" & "English Tea" — On November 12, 2005, McCartney beamed a live wake-up call from his Anaheim concert to the Expedition 12 crew, the first live music concert broadcast to space. The idea came after NASA woke the STS-114 crew with "Good Day Sunshine."

6. Garrett Reisman • Feist — "1234" — During Expedition 17, in 2008, he made a satellite appearance and traded jokes with Stephen Colbert live from the ISS on The Colbert Report. Feist had appeared on the show just 10 days earlier, and the track was played daily on the ISS.

7. Pamela Melroy • Cyndi Lauper — "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" — Her very first wake-up music, on her first flight, STS-92.

8. Mikhail Tyurin & Carl Walz • Elvis Presley — "Heartbreak Hotel" — Soon after the first keyboard arrived in December 2001, Tyurin on guitar and Walz on keyboard played an impromptu concert for their crewmates. On February 2, 2002, Walz — the Astronaut band's resident "Elvis" — sang a space station version of the song to teachers during a live videoconference from orbit.

9. Chris Hadfield • David Bowie — "Space Oddity" — In February 2013 he played guitar chords from orbit during Peter Gabriel's call from Mission Control. That May he released the first music video filmed in space, now viewed more than 45 million times and was praised by Bowie himself.

ACT 3 – THE VIEW FROM ABOVE

10. Danny Olivas • Richard Gibbs — "Step Into Liquid" — In his head at every spacewalk sunrise; it inspired a surfer-style free float on STS-128, making him the Astronaut who "surfed" the ISS. "I taught my children to surf in the Gulf of Mexico around the time of my flights. This song was running through my head as I did my EVAs and how the fluidity of water carried over to our EVA training and ultimately to performing our tasks on orbit. Stepping into the liquid of space."

11. Cady Coleman • Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull — Flute duet — In 2011, the flautist, who brought four flutes to the ISS, played a duet on the track Bourrée, from orbit with Anderson on tour in Perm, Russia.

12. Soichi Noguchi & Naoko Yamazaki • Traditional Japanese Folk Song — "Sakura, Sakura" — In April 2010, the first meeting of two JAXA astronauts in space became a duet in the Kibo module, with Noguchi on bamboo flute and keyboard and Yamazaki on a miniature koto.

13. Ed Lu • Ludwig van Beethoven — "Moonlight Sonata" — During Expedition 7 in 2003, he played his own rendition of the classic on the station's keyboard.

14. Michael López-Alegría • BLKBOK — "Stars (Ad Astra)" — During Axiom Mission 1 in April 2022, he performed the first-ever duet between a private astronaut in space and a musician on Earth, a partnership born from BLKBOK's 2021 National Astronaut Day® debut.

15. Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger • Indigo Girls — "Galileo" — A wake-up song honoring the scientist whose moons of Jupiter she loves to view by telescope.

16. Mark Vande Hei, Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, Kayla Barron, Matthias Maurer, Steve Bowen & Woody Hoburg • Eddie Vedder & Post Malone — Earth Day calls — In 2022 the Pearl Jam frontman talked with the station crew about our fragile planet. Eddie Vedder collaborated with NASA in March 2022 by providing his solo song "Invincible" for a promotional video celebrating the uncrewed Artemis 1 lunar mission. In 2023 Post Malone asked Bowen and Hoburg about watching weather from orbit, and they described lightning flashing across Earth at night.

ACT 4 – TRIUMPH

17. Jessica Meir • John Williams — Star Wars theme — In November 2019, she played it on her high school piccolo for students in her hometown of Caribou, Maine.

18. Wendy Lawrence • Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah. "STS-114 was the first flight of the orbital boom sensing system (OBSS). Before our launch, there were concerns that it would be very difficult to re-berth the OBSS in the orbiter payload bay. I was the primary arm operator for this task. Once Jim Kelly and I successfully berthed the OBSS in Discovery's payload bay, we played the Hallelujah Chorus as a way to thank mission control."

ACT 5 – THE JOURNEY

19. Artemis2 Crew - Zac Brown Band "Free" – Bonus wake up track for the Artemis2 crew on Day 10 (Landing Day)

20. ISS - Willie Nelson "On The Road Again" – rumored to be one of the top karaoke songs on the ISS.

21. Charlie Duke - Dolly Parton "Joshua". A featured track on a special tape made for Apollo 16 Astronaut Charlie Duke created by his friend—Pasadena, Texas radio DJ Bill Bailey. Two identical cassettes were made for the journey. One cassette was left on the moon's surface at the base of the United States flag. The other cassette returned to Earth and was donated to the Smithsonian.

22. Leroy Chiao • Tom Petty — "I Won't Back Down" — A message for young and old: dream big, chase it with passion, and never back down.

23. Clayton Anderson • Green Day — "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" — Played almost daily while "sailing" aboard the ISS. "This was one of my favorite tunes onboard ISS. I especially loved the chorus featuring the words, "… I hope you have the time of your life." Seemed so appropriate for me as, at the time, I had no idea if I would ever make it back to space. I loved to turn the volume way up and fly around the ISS. Made me smile."

24. Nicole Stott • Davy Knowles & Back Door Slam — "Roll Away" — Flown on both her missions; a song about returning to the places special to us, in space or on Earth.

25. Suni Williams • Old Dominion — "Coming Home" — The country hit became a favorite during her extended mission aboard the ISS. Days after her March 2025 return, the band dedicated it to her at their Houston Rodeo show, and that July she joined them as a tour guest at their concert in Bangor, Maine.

26. Kjell Lindgren • Traditional Hymn — "Amazing Grace" — In November 2015, he became the first person to play bagpipes in space, as a tribute to a friend who had suddenly passed away.

Bring an Astronaut to Your Event

Celebrate 26 years on the ISS, and this incredible time in Space History and pop culture, with a live Astronaut keynote, appearance, panel or virtual Q&A. Astronaut speakers turn firsthand stories from space into powerful perspectives on leadership, teamwork, resilience, innovation and STEM/STEAM for corporate events, conferences, universities and schools. Booking early is recommended. Book an Astronaut Speaker

About The Astronaut Agency: Championing Astronauts since 2011, The Astronaut Agency connects organizations, brands and audiences with Astronauts for keynote speaking, appearances, educational programs and partnerships. Powered by uniphi space agency and uniphigood, LLC. www.TheAstronautAgency.com 

About National Astronaut Day®: National Astronaut Day® celebrates Astronauts and their contributions with the rallying cry #WeBelieveInAstronauts. National Astronaut Day® is a registered trademark of uniphigood, LLC. www.NationalAstronautDay.com

Annie Balliro, annie (at) uniphigood (dot) com

SOURCE The Astronaut Agency