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If you were curating a mixtape that might be heard by aliens billions of years from now - but definitely would be seen by your fellow Earthlings - what would you put on it? In 1977, two Voyager spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral on a journey that would take them beyond our solar system. Affixed to the side of these two planetary explorers was the Voyager Golden Record — the ultimate mixtape of humanity — containing 27 pieces of music as well as pictures and sounds of Earth. But how did these selections get made? Nearly 50 years later, we're teaming up with our friends at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s podcast, AirSpace, to explore what's on the record, how it got made, and its legacy.

Airspace Hosts:

Matthew Shindell, curator of space history at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum

Emily Martin, planetary geologist at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum

Guests:

Ann Druyan, Voyager Golden Record Creative Director

Lawrence Azerrad, Co-founder of Macroscopic

3e:T4ac,The Voyager 1 space probe is the farthest human-made object in space. It launched in 1977 with a golden record on board that carried assorted sounds of our home planet: greetings in many different languages, dogs barking, and the sound of two people kissing, to name but a few examples. The idea with this record was that someday, Voyager 1 might be our emissary to alien life – an audible time capsule of Earth's beings. Since its launch, it also managed to complete missions to Jupiter and Saturn. In 2012, it crossed into interstellar space. But a few months ago, the probe encountered a problem. "It's an elderly spacecraft," says NPR science correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce, "and it had some kind of electronic stroke." Greenfieldboyce talks to Short Wave Host Regina G. Barber about the precarious status of Voyager 1 – the glitch threatening its mission, and the increasingly risky measures NASA is taking to try and restore it. What interstellar adventure should we cover next? Email the show at shortwave@npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy3f:T4ba,Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes. Our guest is European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, who completed the longest uninterrupted space flight of any European.First, we go to Australia in the 1990s when amateur radio enthusiast Maggie Iaquinto befriended Soviet cosmonauts on the Mir space station. She updated them on global news as the USSR crumbled back on Earth.Then, the inspiring story of Waris Dirie, who walked barefoot across the Somalian desert to escape child marriage and became an international supermodel.We hear a harrowing account of Guatemala's civil war that ended in 1996.Then, why the author of Mary Poppins, PL Travers, hated the Disney film. Finally, the Canadian town that welcomed aliens in 1967.Contributors: Samantha Cristoforetti - European Space Agency astronaut. Ben Iaquinto - son of Maggie Iaquinto who befriended Soviet cosmonauts. Waris Dirie - model from Somalia. Jeremias Tecu - survivor of Guatemala's civil war. Brian Sibley and Kitty Travers - friend and daughter of PL Travers. Paul Boisvert - worked on Canada's alien landing pad.(Photo: Mir Space Station in 1995. Credit: Space Frontiers/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)40:Ta5f,

The Voyager Spacecraft