Soundtracking NASA's new Constellation Program: Great Space Songs You Haven't Heard a Million Times, Part 2

List of the Day

Page 1 of 3

After this year, NASA will officially be retiring the space shuttle. So what's next for America's space program? This week, the National Mall in Washington has been hosting an exhibit featuring a mock up of the Orion capsule, which will be NASA's new space vehicle of choice come 2015.

Along with the ARES rocket array (pictured above), the Orion capsule is part of NASA's new Constellation Program, an undertaking as ambitious as the 1960s' Apollo Program that first sent a man to the moon. Eventually, NASA plans for the program to take astronauts back to the moon, and perhaps even to Mars.On April 6, there will even be a full simulation of a water landing using the Orion mock-up.

With all this Orion hoopla, I've decided to dedicate this weekend's Lists of the Day to great space songs. But, in the spirit of taking a new approach (as NASA is doing with this exciting new program), I didn't want to just compile the same space classics you've heard countless times. So, there will be no "Rocket Man," no "Space Oddity" or "Across the Universe." No "Mr. Spaceman," "Also Sprach Zarathustra," or "Man on the Moon." And no "Space Truckin'," "Mothership Connection" or "Intergalactic Planetary." No doubt, those are all great songs, and you should still take your protein pills and put your helmet on. But you should also get ready for a new era of space travel, one soundtracked by space jams you're not sick of yet!

Yesterday's list included lesser-known cosmic tunes by Frank Black, Gift of Gab, Pink Floyd, Robert Pollard, The Dexateens, Dead Milkmen and the Velvet Underground. Now check these out...

T. Rex - "Ballrooms of Mars"

I don't know what the space program will be like going forward, but it'd be cooler if it got a little more glammy, so I've included this tune from T. Rex's classic 1972 album The Slider : "I'll call you thing / Just when the moon sings / And place your face in stone / Upon the hill of stars / And gripped in the arms of the changeless madman / We'll dance our lives away / In the ballrooms of Mars."

Danger Doom - "Space Ho's"

While this song—a collaboration between MF Doom and Danger Mouse—is only tangentially related to space (it's about Doom bumping Space Ghost from his spot as latenight cartoon host), we need more whimsy in our space program, so this rad little number makes the list. Plus, it rhymes "space cannon" with "Race Bannon" (from Johnny Quest), so it gets extra points.