Strauss' 'The Blue Danube' to waltz into interstellar space on May 31

The Vienna Philharmonic is to play Johann Strauss' "The Blue Danube" in the Austrian capital on May 31, with the concert transmitted to the Voyager 1 probe in interstellar space.

The Deep Space Antenna of the European Space Agency (ESA) in Spain will transmit the famous tune, Norbert Kettner, head of Vienna Tourism, said on Monday. The orchestra is to play the piece in the city's Museum for Applied Art (MAK).

When it was launched in 1977, the probe carried 27 recordings of music by composers including Bach, Beethoven and Mozart, but not Strauss' waltz, which has become an unofficial theme tune for space following Stanley Kubrick's sci-fi film "2001: A Space Odyssey."

Voyager 1 has on board a gold-plated audio-visual disc that includes photographs and information on the Earth, as well as various recordings, including music. This was done in case the probe is ever found by alien civilizations.

The event is part of a Vienna Tourism campaign marking Strauss' 200th birthday this year. The ESA celebrates the 50th anniversary of its founding on May 31.

Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are now around 25 billion kilometres away from Earth and well beyond our solar system. The signal is expected to take around 23 hours to reach Voyager 1.

Whether the signal can be picked up elsewhere depends on the technical abilities of any civilizations receiving it, organizers said.

Anyone wishing to participate symbolically in the trip can sponsor one of the 13,743 notes free of charge.