Tom Godfrey

When I did
Beatle Race

I had no idea just how prophetic and close to my story theme, reality would turn out to be. I saw this article in the online Sydney Morning Herald today. Love the song and the idea. Here it is.

“THE Beatles song Across The Universe will be the first song to be beamed directly into space next week, NASA has announced.

The Beatle Sir Paul McCartney said it was an “amazing” achievement and John Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, has called it the “beginning of a new age”.

The transmission of the song over the space agency’s Deep Space Network on Monday will mark the 40th anniversary of the day the band recorded the song.

The song will be aimed at the North Star, Polaris, 431 light years away from Earth, and it will travel across the universe at a speed of 186,000 miles a second, NASA said.

In a message to the agency, McCartney said: “Amazing! Well done, NASA! Send my love to the aliens. All the best, Paul.” And Ono said: “I see this as the beginning of the new age in which we will communicate with billions of planets across the universe.”

Anything listening out there would hear the lyrics, which include the chorus line: “Nothing’s gonna change my world.”

Lennon’s poetic verse lyrics include: “Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letter box; they tumble blindly as they make their way across the universe.”

Fans have been invited to take part by playing the song around the world at midnight on Monday GMT – 11am on Tuesday in Sydney – the same time it will be transmitted by NASA. It will mark 50 years of NASA, 45 years of the Deep Space Network and 50 years since the founding of Explorer 1, the first US satellite.

A NASA spokesman said many of the senior scientists and engineers involved in the project were among the Beatles’ biggest fans.

The Deep Space Network is an international network of antennas supporting exploration missions. Dr Barry Geldzahler, the network’s program executive in Washington, said: “I’ve been a Beatles fan for 45 years – as long as the Deep Space Network has been around. “What a joy, especially considering that Across The Universe is my personal favourite Beatles song.”

The last words goes to Lennon: “Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns; It calls me on and on, across the universe.”

Press Association”