Jack White and Third Man Records will attempt to play the first record in space.
The 42-year-old rocker has planned the event to celebrate his label’s seventh anniversary, and their three millionth record pressing.
Jack and his team have chosen Carl Sagan’s ‘A Glorious Dawn’ – which features clips from ‘Stephen Hawking’s Universe’ documentary – which they released as a 7" single on the 9 November 2009 to celebrate what would have been the American astronomer’s 75th birthday.
On Monday (25.07.16), the label announced the stunt in a statement on their official website.
It read: "On July 30th, in celebration of our 7th anniversary, Third Man Records will reveal our attempt to play the first phonographic record in space – a gold-plated 12" master of Carl Sagan’s ‘A Glorious Dawn’ (a moving arrangement of Sagan’s sagacious words culled from his magnificent Cosmos series, previously pressed and distributed as a 7" in their first year of operation, 2009). This record marks our 3 MILLIONTH RECORD PRESSED!
The team will use "The Icarus Craft" – a space-proof turntable – to achieve their goal.
The statement continued: "The vessel tasked with the mission -The ICARUS CRAFT – is a custom-built "space-proof" turntable attached to a high-altitude balloon designed by Kevin Carrico, who has NASA in his blood, and is responsible for assisting in the restoration of many of Third Man’s machines (Third Man Recording Booth) to working order. Kevin and the Third Man team are aided in their endeavour by SATINS (Students and Teachers in Near Space). (sic)"
SATINS (Students and Teachers in Near Space), will help Jack and Third Man in their world first attempt.
To celebrate their endeavour Third Man Records will host launch parties at its Detroit and Nashville locations, which will include a viewing of the mission along with live bands, exclusive merchandise and limited edition 12" gold vinyl copies of the 3 millionth pressing.
Tickets for the parties, which guarantees entry into either Third Man’s Detroit or Nashville location as well as a personalised bag of exclusive merchandise, will go on sale later in the week.
The label have also planned a live-stream of the July 30 attempt.
Jack White plans to play record in space
