--- title: Apollo 10's Alien Music: Nothing to See Here description: An Internet rumor is just that—a rumor canonical: https://time.com/4232274/apollo-10-music-moon/ author: Jeffrey Kluger article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-22T19:40:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:41:49.424Z article:section: Science og:title: No, the Apollo 10 Astronauts Didn't Hear 'Alien Music' Behind the Moon og:description: An Internet rumor turns out not to be true og:url: https://time.com/4232274/apollo-10-music-moon/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb3996bc9a2823c48/69887e7e196cf4730e03a6d3/apollo10.jpg?branch=production&width=1041&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1041 og:image:height: 586 og:image:alt: Too busy for music: The Apollo 10 command module, photographed in lunar orbit from the lunar module. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: No, the Apollo 10 Astronauts Didn't Hear 'Alien Music' Behind the Moon twitter:description: An Internet rumor turns out not to be true twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb3996bc9a2823c48/69887e7e196cf4730e03a6d3/apollo10.jpg?branch=production&width=1041&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # No, the Apollo 10 Astronauts Didn't Hear 'Alien Music' Behind the Moon > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is TIME's weekly climate and energy newsletter, written by senior correspondent Justin Worland. It connects the energy transition to the decisions reshaping business, technology, policy and markets. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Exclusive: Space Station Astronauts Talk to TIME [Watch (HLS stream): Exclusive: Space Station Astronauts Talk to TIME](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/hYuEYVW5.m3u8) (14:10)  _Published 2015-05-15. Astronauts Scott Kelly and Terry Virts speak live from the space station_  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Feb 22, 2016 7:40 PM UTC  Too busy for music: The Apollo 10 command module, photographed in lunar orbit from the lunar module. Too busy for music: The Apollo 10 command module, photographed in lunar orbit from the lunar module. NASA  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Feb 22, 2016 7:40 PM UTC There are two ways to try to get attention on the science blogs and in the space nerd circuit: One, claim that there’s a deep, unexplained secret NASA is keeping about an alien encounter during the Apollo era. Or two, _don’t_ claim that there’s a deep, unexplained secret NASA is keeping about an alien encounter during the Apollo era. Which do you think gets you more attention? If you didn’t have to puzzle too hard over that one, you probably aren’t surprised at all by the attention being paid to a [late-breaking](http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/22/11090620/apollo-10-astronauts-nasa-noises-music), [“newly declassified”](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/apollo-10-astronauts-reported-unexplained-music-at-moon%5Fus%5F56c80662e4b0928f5a6c0679) [story](http://www.sciencechannel.com/tv-shows/the-unexplained-files/) that the Apollo 10 astronauts heard alien music through their headsets when they were on the far side of the moon in 1969 and kept the story buried all these years.  Let’s start with the most important fact: This isn’t true, as in it’s made up, as in it’s nonsense. And the good thing is, you don’t have to believe me. You can take it from from Gene Cernan, the Apollo 10 lunar module pilot, who unlike all of the Internet chatterers, was actually _aboard_ the spacecraft when the supposed music started streaming in. “Forget the UFOs,” Cernan told TIME. “We took a cassette tape recorder quite simply to play our favorite music which we also played for the ground a time or two. Maybe that was it. It would be interesting to know where this all started.” [_Listen to TIME’s new space podcast, It’s Your Universe_](https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/its-your-universe/id1077050032?mt=2) The best place to begin figuring that out is with the most tantalizing part of the ostensible scoop—the “newly declassified” part. The story is based on cockpit conversations transcribed from what NASA formally called the Data Storage Equipment (DSE) and less formally called the “dump tapes.” These were cockpit recordings made of the astronauts’ conversations from the moment of liftoff to the moment of splashdown (with their knowledge, of course). The dump tape recordings were far more coarse and candid than the more familiar air to ground transmissions, which were generally kept clipped and clinical, with the language well-scrubbed for the global audience that was listening in. For that reason, the transcripts of the recording were indeed kept classified—but only until 1976\. I read many of the DSE transcripts, which were readily available, when I was writing the book _Apollo 13_—in 1992. (The entire Apollo 10 transcript is available from NASA [here](http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/mission%5Ftrans/AS10%5FCM.PDF), as are the transcripts of all of the Apollo missions except Apollo 13 because the recording equipment had to be shut off along with most of the spacecraft’s other systems to save power after the on-board explosion crippled the ship.) It is true that the Apollo 10 astronauts did hear something they could not quite explain cutting through the crackle in their headsets when they were on the far side of the moon. It is true too that they called it “music,” though only in the way a whale call is described as a song because of its rising and falling tones. (In the transcript, command module pilot John Young describes what they’re hearing as “a whistling sound,” and lunar module pilot Gene Cernan imitates it as “whoooooo,” which is not exactly the kind of song you wind up getting stuck in your head and singing all day). What they were actually hearing is more prosaic than an alien download. NASA communications have long been a crackly, imperfect thing. When Apollo 8 became the first manned mission to the moon just five months before Apollo 10 followed, NASA wasn’t even certain that a communication system designed for low-Earth orbit would function at a remove of 230,000 miles. Things got even more complicated on Apollo 10 because it was the first time two manned spacecraft were used in the vicinity of the moon—both the command-service module and the lunar module—and they used two different antennae and communications systems. What’s more, at that time, the far side of the moon was still very much terra incognita. On the one hand, it’s very radio-quiet because transmissions from Earth can’t make it through the vast intervening bulk of the moon. On the other hand it’s radio-noisy because ambient static from the storm of electromagnetic frequencies streaming in from deep space suddenly become audible. When you’re staying in a house deep in the woods and you turn off the television to go to bed, things don’t go completely silent. The TV noise is simply replaced by the chirping of crickets and the rest of the nighttime soundtrack. And as for the Apollo 10 astronauts not wanting to tell NASA what they were hearing? Well, if you were an Apollo astronaut, you wouldn’t either. Nearly every man aboard every one of the Apollo ships had dreams of making a lunar landing one day, but there were many more aspiring moonwalkers than there were open seats. Just one flight before, Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart found himself grounded when he reported that he had suffered from serious motion sickness while he was aloft. It was—and remains—a problem for about half of all astronauts, but Schweickart was the first one to admit it. Imagine what the Apollo 10 crew feared they’d face if they reported hearing hallucinatory music. The fact is, the Apollo 10 crew flew true and flew well and, as they still like to say, painted the white line from Earth to moon that Apollo 11 was able to follow just four months later for the first lunar landing. That may not make as flashy a headline as a tale abut alien music does but, as the timeless saying goes, it has the benefit of being true. ## Transcript Station, this is Time Magazine how do you hear me ? >> We read you loud and clear . >> Guys its see you, can you tell me a little about where you are in the station right now and what your day has been like so far? Good morning, Jeff. We are in the airlock right now. This is where we get ready for and do our space walks. These are our space suits right here, so, right now Scott and I are not planned to do one. I did one on the last part of my mission with Butch Wilmore, and Scott's gonna do several here in a few months. But we get the equipment and the space suits ready here, and that part of the airlock right there, we close the hatch. Depress all the air out of it and go out in space from there. And where are we your in the cycle of your work day right now? Hey, good morning Jeff, good to talk to you. It is 10: 46 in the morning and we are on GMT so we get up around 6 a. m. Out work day starts generally about sometime between 7 and 7: 30. All of us are kind of on, do different activities, sometimes together but a lot of time separately. So far today for me personally I had some exercise. My first of two exercise sessions, running on the treadmill for. About 30 minutes, and then I did some some research. This experiment called fine motor skills is a cognitive experiment to investigate how our cognitive abilities change over the long term. And a few other little odds and ends activities that probably aren't worth going into, but that are very important. For you know, maintaining the space station and, and maintaining our, our lives up here . >> Now you were expecting the docking of the Russian Progress ship, just a couple, a week or so ago, how big a problem, if at all, is it that the ship didn't arrive and is there anything aboard that you guys were especially looking forward to? Any personal items? Well, actually this is a testament to how well stocked this space station is. We did lose the resupply ship but we have enough supplies on board to stay here for many months. Food and water and clothes and that kind of stuff. We're still able to do all our scientific experiments so. It was a loss and of course it it's gonna effect the future but we were able to cope with it, and like I said, there's plenty of margin on board. So there's no immediate danger. That was a Russian ship, so our [ UNKNOWN ] friends, we have a crew of six three of them are Russian [ UNKNOWN ]. So most of the equipment was for them. Most of the food was for them. So we've been sharing as much as we can And, we've had failures in the past of American vehicles, and, of course, they share with us. It's a pretty cool partnership to be able to work together like that. Scott, you're only two months in, less than two months in out of your, your year in space, but can you tell us anything about, any of the biomedical experiments you've done and any of them that, that involve Mark? So you know, there's a lot of research that is involved in my stay up here. You know, like I was sent to the weather channel. I don't know if you were listening, over 400 different experiments throughout the, the period of time you're in various disciplines. For me personally, there's the one year research which has a lot of imaging associated with it. Ultrasound of various parts of my body, my heart, arteries and my neck and brain and muscles. And some of that involves the science that is being done with my brother and I that comparative Science which is most cases genetic based. So it's samples, blood, urine, other samples that our bodies give off. And I've done those collections twice and done a bunch of the ultrasound tests Also a lot of tests on my eyes and my vision but the stuff that involves my brother is some of the ultrasound work and a lot of the human samples. And those don't always sound like fun, so what do you guys do for fun? What's the most enjoyable recreational part of your day? Well you know unfortunately there's not a whole lot of time for fun. We have a pretty good work schedule. I don't think people realize, you know, how hard we work up here. And we basically work, at least I do, from the time I get up Until about an hour or so before I go to sleep. And, you know, these other two guys work harder than I do. So, yeah, not a lot of, free time for fun, but we, you know, we have a chance to, you know, watch some movies to. You certainly enjoy the view. To read, although I haven't read anything yet book wise. I need to start that, And you know, a lot of the time is, is spent communicating with folks on Earth. And Terry, how do you recalibrate your emotions when you were just a week or so away from going home, and now the delay's mean it'll be at least another month or so Yeah, that's always a tough one for military folks on deployment. Whenever deployment gets extended at the last minute, that can be tough. The hardest hit people are my family back on earth, it's really tough on them. For me, I just kind of-- I'm here, I'm doing my job. It's more of the same. It's, it's only gonna be a few more weeks. You know we'll be back in June. And so I, I just try not to think about it and just press on with my daily activities and keep on going. The hardest, like I said the hardest I think is for the folks on Earth. Aside from family, family and friends, what do you guys miss most about Earth? If you think about what's going on down there, is there one particular thing that pops into mind? You know, weather. We do not have weather up here. It's sunny and low humidity and 75 every day, and so Just the, the sounds and smell of rain, or snow, or sunny, warm day, you know? We don't get that in. It's an interesting thing. But in a lot of ways, I forgotten what weather's like. And I, I, I really forgot what gravity feels like. I don't, I'll be a in, reintroduced to that here in a few weeks. Scott do you and Masha get to see a great deal of each other? Do you work together on the one year experiment? I know there are two different wings of the station but you guys are both in the in the one year study. You know we do consider ourselves one, one individual crew. And you know for a lot of reasons. You know, we have to respond in an emergency together as a, as a unified team. We you know fly together in the Soyuz. But a lot of our activities are done separately. It's almost like You know, two organizations, sharing two different wings of a laboratory, let's say. So, Misha sleeps in the, the US segment, and, the cosmonauts do some activities down here, but for the most part. You know their workday is spent in the Russian segment and our workday is spent in what is considered the US operational segment, which is not only the US modules but the European Space Agency module and the the two Japanese modules we have up here. So You know we we do see each other a lot but a lot of time its just seeing and passing as he's coming going to and from work in the morning and in the evening and in the other times of day he comes down to his crew quarters to maybe get on the computer or make a phone call or take a little break from his work day so its almost like you know we just kinda wave and passing a lot of the times. [ INAUDIBLE ] in this trip was the the scrubbing of Sarah Brightman's trip to the statement. How big a disappointment was this? You guys were about to get a an international Star up there? Well, I wouldn't say I was disappointed for me. I was kinda of disappointed for her. You know, because I, I had grown to be friendly with her and you know, I know how much she was looking forward to this It's great to get visitors up here, you know. You like the people you're flying with, but you also would like to see new faces. And we're not sure who's gonna be put in that in that seat when the Soyuz launches here in September, now was the original plan. But whoever it is, We will welcome them, just as much as we were, would welcome Sarah Brideman. So, you know on one hand it's, you know I'm sorry she's not going to make it and fulfil her dream of flying in space, but on the other hand, you know, someone else, someone else will and that's a great thing for them. Terry, are there any additional projects you've picked up given that you're going to be there for another month or is the workload such that you never have to worry about busying yourself? Well, yes, for sure, like Scott was saying earlier, a work day is pretty much all day every day. But I think we're in this phase now, we used to be in what we call the assembly phase of station, then we're in utilization. I kinda look at this as a reconfiguration phase. We're moving some modules around. The space walks that I did, and the space walks that Scott are gonna do, are getting ready for future vehicles. And so one of the big projects is to move what's called a PMM module, which is just below the camera And move it, two modules over, basically. And, and, that may be something that we do in this time that we have off. We've picked up some big maintenance on our, on our life support and recycling systems. So we're, we're trying to get ahead on some of the tasks that are gonna be required for the next year. Relocating that PMM module, if it ends up happening, is gonna be a. Kind of a really big task. Gut, you're said to take your first space walk of your career, when is that happening, and how much more training or preparation do you have ahead for that? Well right now, it's a little bit TBD, because the first planned space walk was for Chill Lindgren and, and myself And it's associated with the next Space X. So the next Space X has a hardware component on it that allows commercial vehicles to dock, US commercial vehicles to dock to the International Space Station. And when the Space X gets here we'll pull that piece of hardware out of Space X. It's on the unpressurized. Portion of the vehicle, and then as soon as Chel get up here, some number of days after, we're not sure which. Cuz he was supposed to be here already when that arrived but now that his launch is being delayed we're gonna have to replan that. So I'm not sure, it's probably some time, I would suspect in in August they're supposed to get here. Toward the end of July. Of course, Terry and I could always go out and do an unplanned space walk if something was to break on the space station. So, you know, you have to be prepared for that. As far as training, there is some on board training you do. There's certainly a lot of study and preparation, and I'm sure Terry can attest to that, doing three space walks in a row. So the training never stops. We do on board training, you know. You train for this your whole life and you continue to train and it's you know, you almost think maybe when you get home you'll still be doing training because you know, you're in such a habit of doing it Do you feel-- you've got, I guess, ten and a half months, ten months and a week. How are you pacing yourself? Does that feel like a long haul or are you sort of getting fully in the rhythm? It's one thing I think about every single day. Is that you know, fortunately I had the experience of being up here previously. And I think most people that have been here for six months can tell you that a year is a very long time to live here. Where you can't leave a very closed environment, a very heavy workload, and so I, I think about it all the time. Like I said earlier, you know, we, I work from basically the time I get until right before I go to sleep, so me pacing myself is you know, one of the most critical things I do because I need to have, you know, the same ability and energy and focus and attention to focus at the end of this mission that I do right now. And you know because, you know at anytime we need to be able to respond to an emergency. To stand very long hours if we have to go outside and do a, an emergency space walk for instance. So you know, it's the, the number one thing. Actually safety is first, and the number two thing in my mind is, is pacing myself for the long haul. Wonderful. Gentlemen, thank you so much for giving us this time this morning. And fly safely, and come home to us soon. Thanks Jeff good talking to you this morning. [ BLANK AUDIO ] >> Station, this is Houston ACR. Thank you. That concludes the event. And thank you Weather Channel and Time Magazine. Station, we are now resuming operational audio communication. Thanks. 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