Crewed spaceflight is, of course, serious business. Even today, the cost of sending people is so high that mission planners try to maximize every hour a given crew is in space. Still, astronauts and cosmonauts are human beings, and human beings require rest and breaks from constant work even though they are in orbit or on their way to and from the moon.

With that in mind, one of the most enduring traditions in space flight is the crew listening to music in space and even in the final minutes of a countdown. It started in 1961 and continues today, when Polaris Dawn astronaut Sarah Gillis, a gifted classical violinist, performed aboard Crew Dragon ‘Resilience’ while in Earth orbit.