- NASA has revealed its playlist of wake-up call songs for the Artemis II crew
- It includes Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club and a cover of Passion Pit’s Sleepyhead
- This tradition dates back to the days of the Apollo missions
Aside from being a roaring success mid-mission, NASA’s Artemis II venture is one of the most important historical events of our time, but despite travelling through deep space its astronauts haven’t missed out on the simple things we love about life on Earth.
From its food menu of much-loved delicacies, to using the iPhone 17 Pro Max to snap pictures of our planet from afar, these things make life on the Orion spacecraft much more manageable — and the same goes for its choice of music. You heard that right. In space, pop music still exists.
Manned by the Artemis II control team based in Houston, Texas, NASA is playing a series of songs to the Orion spacecraft as wake-up calls for astronauts Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Jeremy Hansen. It’s a handy way to ensure the crew is kept on a schedule that aligns with the rest of the team down on Earth.
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In between all the seriousness of the Artemis II venture, this is one of the light-hearted elements of the space mission that people have been following online. NASA unveils each song with every wake-up call, so the next one can remain a surprise, but there’s already been a slew of bangers NASA has emitted to the crew since they launched into space on April 1.
Kicking off the series of wake-up calls was Sleepyhead by Young and Sick (a cover of Passion Pit’s original version) — whose title is fitting to how the crew must’ve been feeling at the time.
The second wake-up call was soundtracked by John Legend and Andre 3000’s Greenlight, followed by In a Daydream by Freddy Jones Band and viral pop banger Pink Pony Club by Chappell Roan, which was cut only a minute into the song, garnering a humorous response from Wiseman: “We were eagerly awaiting the chorus,” he said to the control team.
NASA played chappell roan’s pink pony club to wake up the astronauts on artemis II this morning! “we were all eagerly awaiting the chorus” pic.twitter.com/n0pqgkDz16April 4, 2026
CeeLo Green’s Working Class Heroes (Work), Mandisa and ToyMac’s Good Morning, and Glass Animals’ Tokyo Drifting finish the playlist. NASA has more tunes on the way as the Artemis II crew makes its way back to Earth, but we won’t know what they’ll be until NASA updates its official Spotify playlist, which you can stream right now.
It may be a surprise to you, but this isn’t unique to the Artemis II mission. NASA’s tradition of sending wake-up calls dates back all the way to the Apollo days, most notably when NASA used Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett to wake up the crew, and not forgetting when the theme for 2001: A Space Odyssey was used during the Apollo 15 mission in 1971.
Which tracks would you want to hear if you were confined in the Orion spacecraft?
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rowan.davies@futurenet.com (Rowan Davies)
