By Sue Levine
“3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . Ignition . . . Liftoff . . . All systems nominal”
On September 10, 2024 at 5:23am EST, from the balcony of the NASA Operations Support Building, about three miles from the Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex Pad 39A, my husband Rick and I watched teary-eyed and hearts in our throats as the Polaris Dawn crew took flight aboard the Falcon 9 rocket. We saw the engines fire, brighter than daylight, then heard and felt the liftoff resonate through our bodies. Our daughter, Sarah Gillis, was inside the Dragon spacecraft on top of the rocket.
The capsule reached orbit, accelerating from 0 to 17,500mph in just ten minutes, starting the ambitious five-day mission in space. During the mission, the crew accomplished all their objectives, including 40 science and research experiments, numerous outreach events, as well as testing out new SpaceX designed suits during the first commercial spacewalk. There were many firsts on this mission, including Sarah and her crewmember Anna Menon becoming the two women to have traveled farther from the earth to date, the crew successfully performing the first four-person and commercial spacewalk with all crewmembers at vacuum, and Sarah becoming the youngest person to have ever performed a spacewalk.
Sarah set one more record while up in space: she became the first person to perform the violin in space!
One of the mission objectives was to test the Starlink internet to the spacecraft for the first time and the crew wanted to send an inspiring message back to Earth with the first transmission. Hoping to ignite new ideas in students all over the world, Sarah worked with El Sistema USA both to develop a music and science curriculum inspired by her journey, and to identify student groups from all around the world to participate in the orbital performance.
The performance from space was set in motion over a year ahead of time. Sarah selected Rey’s Theme from Star Wars by John Williams, working with producer Rickey Minor and an awesome team to put together the vision. The orchestral and student groups were pre-recorded.
My husband and I had the opportunity to attend the recording session for the professional orchestra in July 2023 conducted by Jeri Lynne Johnson in Los Angeles at the Eastwood Scoring Stage at Warner Brothers. All of the Polaris Dawn crew attended the recording session and were extremely impressed with the world of professional musicians, a world that certainly was new to the pilots. Sarah recorded a backup version of her performance in a studio booth, in case there was a technical problem downloading her performance in space. We met John Williams, who spoke to the orchestra before the recording session, saying that while others had played flute and guitar in space, this would be the first time “one of us” would be performing. Talk about a proud parent and teacher moment!
The actual performance from space was the highlight of the entire week-long mission for Rick and I. We got to see and hear all of Sarah’s performance live from space, and the sound quality was great! The captured footage was sent down as the first transmission over Starlink, and Sarah’s on-orbit performance was the last element to be added to the production before being released to the world.
Getting a violin to space for the performance was not easy. It required putting multiple violins into a thermal vacuum chamber to ensure there wouldn’t be any toxic off-gassing issues with the varnish or glue, as the entire violin would have to survive being in vacuum in the capsule during the spacewalk. She had to fly a quarter-sized bow to fit in the available cargo slots, and only one gram of rosin could be flown and had to be thrown out before the spacewalk for flammability concerns. Sarah worked with Barbara Barber of Robertson and Sons in Albuquerque, to fly a Christian Pedersen violin. The violin beautifully survived the trip to space, and will be auctioned off to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
So what is it like playing in space? Sarah says it’s extremely fun! To successfully play without moving around, Sarah stabilized her body using her feet to stay in place. Shifting on the violin was the most unique part, as you actually push or pull the violin as you shift, which causes the violin to move during the shift, resulting in intonation challenges! The short bow didn’t turn out to be a problem and she said it felt pretty similar to use on the ground. All of the musical groups were synched during recording using a click-track, so in space, Sarah was floating in a swarm of cables, some from the mics capturing her audio, and some from the headset in her ear.
Dr. Suzuki always spoke of the importance of the home environment, and Sarah is certainly an example of this. She was our third child, and was determined to keep up with her brother and sister, so she was able to learn quickly by watching them practice at home. She especially enjoyed what we called “blueberry practices”: play a review piece and eat a blueberry!
I was Sarah’s first teacher before she went on to study for many years with Dr. William Starr in the Boulder Suzuki Strings program. We’re grateful to Amy Gesmer-Packman and the Boulder Suzuki Strings teachers, Shining Mountain Waldorf School, the Boulder Youth Symphony, and the Boulder Philharmonic for providing her with such a rich musical environment.
Sarah and I recorded an interview for the El Sistema curriculum, where I reminded her of what she had learned from studying the violin: how to take a problem apart, analyze the relative difficulties, solve each of them, and then put all the parts back together. She realized as we talked that although she does not play violin as often any more, she uses these skills every day as an engineer. I enjoyed telling her that she is my student who has taken her music farthest in the world . . . and beyond!