The sounds
of cheering crowds and former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney greeted the two astronauts
aboard the International Space Station (ISS) early Sunday morning during a live
concert broadcast to the orbital laboratory.
"We want to
say hi to you, we want to say good morning," McCartney said to the station's Expedition
12 crew. "I can't believe we're actually transmitting to space, this is
sensational."
McCartney
performed two songs live from Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, California for ISS Expedition
12 commander Bill McArthur and flight engineer Valery Tokarev flying 219
statute miles (352 kilometers) above Earth.
"It's such
an honor for you to join us," said McArthur after performing a pair of
weightless somersaults aboard the station. "We're so thrilled that you can
participate in our flight."
The
broadcast began at about 12:55 a.m. EST (0555 GMT), though it was still 9:55
p.m. on stage for McCartney and his fans.
"We'd like
to wake you up to a little bit of 'English Tea,'" McCartney told McArthur - of NASA
- and Russian cosmonaut Tokarev, who sipped from breakfast drink bags during
the performance. "What's that you got there in your tea Valery, a little vodka?"
McCartney joked.
"It's a
little early today," answered Tokarev with a smile.
McCartney
also performed "Good Day Sunshine" for the ISS crew, a song that NASA used to
rouse the seven astronauts aboard the space shuttle Discovery during the final
day of their STS-114 return to
flight mission.
"We're very
proud to say that on the morning that NASA told them they were clear to come
home to the Earth," they played that song, McCartney said. "We send our love
from Earth."
McArthur
and Tokarev are more than one month into a six-month mission aboard the ISS. They
have performed one of at least two planned spacewalks and will take a brief ride
outside the ISS next week to move their Soyuz spacecraft from one berth to
another.
"I think
this audience just wants to give you thanks for everything your doing and for joining
us here tonight," McCartney said. "We wish you all the best for the rest of
your mission. We can't wait to meet you when you get back down to Earth."
"That was a
lot of fun," McCarthur said after the concert link up.
ISS flight
controllers told the NASA astronaut that his wife and two daughters were
present at mission control in Houston for the even and were more than happy
with McCartney's invitation to say hello.
"I suspect
they enjoyed that even more than we did," McArthur said.
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