Published at 1:45 AM on April 4, 2009

By Steve LaBate

Soundtracking NASA's new Constellation Program: Great Space Songs You Haven't Heard a Million Times, Part 1

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Pink Floyd - "Interstellar Overdrive"
Sure, Dark Side of the Moon offers an amazing aural approximation of space, but for my money, nothing says, "Holy shit, captain, we're about to be sucked through a black hole into a strange parallel dimension full of shape-shifting undead lizard people!" like Pink Floyd's free-form Syd Barrett-led instrumental "Interstellar Overdrive."


Robert Pollard - "Conqueror of the Moon"
This epic space rocker from the former frontman of Guided By Voices—who once brought you lo-fi classics like "Hardcore UFOs" and "Alien Lanes"—has quite a bit in common, sonically, with that last early Floyd tune. Also worth noting for the uninitiated... Pollard usually comes up with titles before he writes a song, hypothesizing that if you have a great title, a great song will come. I mean, how bad could a tune called "Conqueror of the Moon" be?


The Dexateens - "Neil Armstrong"
Speaking of "conquerors of the Moon," this fantastic, little-known Alabama rock band has written the definitive song about astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first human being to ever set foot on the Moon. The tune features harmony vocals from fellow Alabama native and Drive-By Trucker Patterson Hood, who wrote the song "Puttin' People on the Moon," about a town just downriver from NASA's Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville.


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