NASA opens SoundCloud account to provide sounds of space

22 Oct 2014

Space shuttle Atlantis launches from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Image via NASA

While space may have no sound in the audible sense, NASA is now allowing SoundCloud users to listen to what space really ‘sounds’ like and the many missions the US space agency has taken to explore its vastness.

Aside from the sound of cosmic radiation travelling through our solar system, the audio clips contain everything from very brief commands from mission control during missions, to the sound of the decommissioned space shuttles taking off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

NASA has 62 files on the SoundCloud account so far.

“You can hear the roar of a space shuttle launch or (astronaut) Neil Armstrong’s ‘One small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind’ every time you get a phone call if you make our sounds your ringtone. Or, you can hear the memorable words ‘Houston, we’ve had a problem,’ every time you make an error on your computer.”

Here are some of the highlights from the treasure trove of information that is NASA.

Don’t miss our Innovation Ireland Forum on 24 October in the Guinness Storehouse, Dublin

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com