

They poked a hole in the jacket and ran a string through the vinyl LP’s center hole. Phillips and his team attached it underneath. The vinyl LP would not fit on the payload. The video constantly has the new STYX CD in full view as it rises until you can see the curve of the earth and the black of space then the balloon pops and tumbles back. To document this exciting collaboration between science and rock n’ roll, the band’s label (UMe) and the band created a time lapse lyric video for the song “Radio Silence” that traces the entire ascent and descent within four minutes.

The space atmosphere boundary is at 328,000 feet. The British band Blur recorded “Far Out,” which was played on Beagle 2 when it landed on Mars in 2003. Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B Goode” is on golden disc within Voyager 1. Amazingly, the CD and LP survived the landing.Īs far as we know, this is the only time a vinyl LP has gone this high into the atmosphere, exposed to the elements and returned safe and sound. On this mission, the payload and the music landed in a Joshua Tree forest in Nevada.

A parachute deployed and the package landed safely. Then it popped and the payload packages tumbled back to earth for nearly 20 minutes. For nearly three hours the balloon ascended. They launched it near the Sierra Nevada Mountains. His team recorded the entire ascent of the package to 111K feet. Phillips and his team of students launched a weather balloon with both the CD and LP of THE MISSION attached to the payload. He is also a major STYX fan.īack in April, Dr.

Tony Phillips is a scientist and researcher that launches weather balloons 111,000 feet to the edge of space to measure ionizing radiation in the stratosphere. Here’s more info about the “Radio Silence” video:ĭr. STYX–Tommy Shaw (vocals, guitars), James “JY” Young (vocals, guitars), Lawrence Gowan (vocals, keyboards), Todd Sucherman (drums) and Ricky Phillips (bass), along with the occasional surprise appearance by original bassist Chuck Panozzo-has just released the lyric video for “Radio Silence” from their highly anticipated and critically acclaimed 16th studio album, THE MISSION.
