Star power and girl power combine in a new music video produced by NASA's interns. The “educational parody” is helping launch the space agency’s new mission to get the first woman, and the next man, on the Moon by 2024.
More than a dozen NASA interns rewrote and remixed Ariana Grande’s aptly-named song “NASA” from her 2019 album “Thank U, Next.” The space agency posted the video to its Facebook page Sunday and to YouTube last Thursday. NASA said it hopes the video will revive excitement in deep space exploration.
“Through the agency’s Artemis lunar exploration program, we will use innovative new technologies and systems to explore more of the Moon than ever before … Then we will use what we learn on and around the Moon to take the next giant leap – sending astronauts to Mars,” NASA stated on YouTube.
The Artemis program, launched last spring, serves as a “sister program” to the original Apollo program. According to NASA’s website, the program will incorporate the agency’s new rocket, the Space Launch System, or SLS, as well as the Orion spacecraft and Gateway spaceship.
Alexis Vance, a NASA intern and student at Oklahoma State University, starred in and co-produced the video. She said interns hoped the video would promote interest in NASA’s new initiative.
“Doing this we hope to not only provide some entertainment to the public but just kind of fire people up about our Moon to Mars mission and about the Artemis program,” Vance said.
She also said the online buzz had meant a lot to her and her fellow interns. Even Ariana Grande retweeted the students’ video.
oh my. this is so pure and special and insane. hi everyone over there that is doing such incredible work ! thank u for taking the time to make this ! my heart is ..... bursting. 🌑🌫🖤 https://t.co/o48OzSSTcD
— Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande) September 9, 2019
“All of the interns are definitely pumped … this is something we worked on for a very long time,” Vance said.
Vance added that producing educational videos has become a tradition for NASA interns. In addition to their regular duties as young engineers, the group of interns learned how to write songs, edit videos and record in an audio booth for their version of “NASA.”
“I’m just glad to share the message of our mission, and I’m glad that a lot of people are having fun with it. It’s bringing them as much joy as it brought us to make the video,” Vance said.
For would-be astronauts and singers, NASA is now accepting intern applications.
