Space Songs

One of the Museum’s most impactful video engagements of 2020 was a program unlike any it has produced before. Space Songs: Through the Distance was a virtual concert hosted by Adam Savage and featuring musical guests performing in their own homes, including Sting, clipping, Valerie June, and Grace Potter. The concert spotlighted the creativity and community that can be found in distance and isolation, in both music and spaceflight.

Space Songs was presented April 30, at the height of a worldwide effort to provide exciting and compelling content to people social distancing and self-isolating in their homes. 

Through this program, the Museum was able to build relationships with partners in the music industry, reach new audiences that may not have interacted with the Museum before, and present a fresh angle on the wonder of spaceflight and exploration. 

Space Songs received nearly 70,000 views to date on YouTube, and had over 7,000 concurrent live views, the highest number of live viewers on YouTube the Museum has seen. One thousand new people subscribed to the Museum’s YouTube channel as a result of the program.

Comments from viewers included “Beautiful. Thank you Air & Space for bringing these songs to my living room!” and “Thank you for making this!! <3 Much love and appreciation for all of your art and passion!!”

Under Ancient Skies

In 2020, the National Air and Space Museum released its first album! Under Ancient Skies is a collaboration between the Museum and Grammy-award winning musician and producer Diplo. The Museum’s AirSpace satellite brand took inspiration from Diplo’s MMXX ambient album to expand on the theme of our connection with nature and explore our human experience in the cosmos around the globe and throughout history--from the ancient world to contemporary understandings of the universe. The album features twelve “chapters” of astronomy stories, including:

  • “Higher,” a journey to the Atacama Desert and the Chajnantor Plateau where people across time have climbed above half of Earth's atmosphere to connect with the sky.
  • “Family,” where we learn the story of the Pleiades (aka the Seven Sisters), and how this star cluster is viewed by the peoples of Aboroginal Australia.
  • “Eclipse,” explores the fleeting wonder of the popular astronomical phenomenon — and how shocking it must have been to experience for the first time.

The album features music by Diplo and original narration written by the Museum and recorded by Hrishikesh Hirway, creator and host of the podcast turned Netflix series “Song Exploder.” 

The Under Ancient Skies album has received over 300,000 streams, with the majority of the listeners to the album on streaming platforms under the age of 34, allowing the Museum to reach a key audience demographic.

Listen to Under Ancient Skies on YouTube or your preferred digital streaming platform.

  • 1.3: Use research and diverse modes of storytelling to amplify visitors’ connections with artifacts to expand interest and engagement with history, space exploration, aviation, and our global society
  • 2.3: Expand the Museum’s partnerships and deepen engagement with them, offering the Museum as a resource in the expansion of digital outreach
  • 2.3.3: Facilitate collaboration within the Museum and with national and international entities
  • 2.3.4: Pursue creative opportunities to promote the Museum, its scholarship, and its educational programs