The US singer John Denver died in a crash in his own airplane on October 12. Famous world-wide for such notable songs as "Take me home, country road" John Denver also has a place in the history of space tourism.

Back in the late 1980s he made considerable efforts to get to space to record some music there. Having failed to get a ride on the space shuttle, he reportedly tried to get a ride on a Soviet flight, but wasn't prepared to pay the price of $10 million that was then the going rate (see Space Activities and Global Popular Music Culture).

As a result, the first pop music has still to be recorded in space. Whoever does it is guaranteed an indelible place in history - not least in the Guiness Book of Records.

Of course, there's already a lot of pop music about space (see "Space Activities and Global Popular Music Culture"), and there has also already been some music in space - Wally Schirra played "Jingle Bells" in space on a Hohner "Little Lady" Harmonica aboard Gemini VI in December 1965, with Thomas Stafford on the jingle bells!, and Ronald McNair (later to die in the Challenger disaster) was the first to play a saxophone in orbit.

But the real thing is going to be performing music in space: Who will actually be the first to compose and record music in orbit? What will it be like? Who'll record the first jazz? The first heavy metal? Who'll be the first band? The first orchestra? Bets anyone?

For more information: write to your favourite musician.

More on John Denver at: http://www.nss.org/alerts/releases/release19.html.