In celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon – and as a tribute to NASA and the pioneering spirit of Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, the first space walkers to land on the moon – “Space Talk,” Asha Puthli’s classic track has been transmitted into deep space. Last year The Beatles’ “Across the Universe” was successfully transmitted by NASA.

“Space Talk” is travelling across the Universe at the speed of light, that’s 186,000 miles every second. Travelling at the speed of light the transmission the song could complete 1,401 return journeys between the Earth and the moon in an hour.

In a strange twist of fate, 40 years ago the spectacular image of the Moon landing graced the front cover of Life Magazine (Dec. 12, 1969 issue). The back cover is a double page fold out ad featuring Asha Puthli’s first modeling assignment after she landed in the U.S. From Space Walk to Space Talk.

In recent years, the underground 1970’s classic from the album The Devil is Loose has become a heavily sampled popular hip-hop break record. Asha Puthli has co-writer credits with Jay-Z, P.Diddy, Big Moe, Jermaine Dupri, SWV and The Notorious B.I.G. on the track “The World is Filled” from the multi-platinum album, Life After Death.

Recognized in critical circles as a fusion pioneer, Asha’s distinctive, unusual recordings predate fusion of East and West celebrated today in styles like hip-hop, worldbeat, and electronica by almost 20 years. Acclaimed for her vocals on the “Science Fiction” album by jazz iconoclast Ornette Coleman, Asha shared the Downbeat Critics’ Poll award for “Best Female Jazz Vocalist” alongside Ella Fitzgerald and Dee Dee Bridgewater.

“Space Talk” was hailed as an instant classic by the New York Times and Thom Jurek of allmusic.com praises the record as “a masterpiece of snakey, spaced-out soul and pre-mainstream disco. More information on “Space Talk” and Asha Puthli can be found at www.AshaPuthli.com.

The Hartelijke Groeten aan Iedereen golden record from the people of Belgium is now travelling through space on its eternal journey. If you want to track how far it has travelled at any time just go to the SentForever home page and enter this tracking code – SF59077054410D05 – in the “Track your message” box.

The golden record message containing a video of the life and success of the Belgian people was the end result of the Belgium TV Een series Hartelijke Groeten aan Iedereen. This radio message overtook the original golden records sent on the 1977 Voyager space probes after only 12 hours. This is because the SentForever radio transmissions travel at the speed of light which is about 671,000,000 miles per hour.

The Hartelijke Groeten aan Iedereen TV series (which means Warm Greetings from Everyone) ends with a deep space transmission by SentForever. It has been nominated for a Golden Rose at the prestigious Montreux Festival in the entertainment category. We wish all the Hartelijke Groeten aan Iedereen team success at the Festival in May this year.

Did you see the movie Contact starring Jodie Foster – made back in 1997? It’s based on Carl Sagan’s novel and it’s one of our favourite movies here at SentForever.

It’s based around the story of an astronomer who is searching for radio transmissions from other civilizations in deep space. Despite deep scepticism from people involved in the more traditional fields of science and astronomy, she perseveres and eventually finds one of these transmissions. The rest of the film follows the decoding of the transmission and how they go about following its instructions.

I was interviewed on BBC radio recently and was asked if anybody will ever receive the SentForever messages that are transmitted. It was a good question which I had to answer in two parts.

First of all – I don’t know if it will ever be received. Our transmissions go out in a narrow beam into one particular part of space ay any one time so on one hand the chances are slim. However, the transmission will last forever even though it gets weaker and weaker over time. So, on the other hand that boosts the chance of a message being received.

The other important element is that SentForever’s messages aren’t intended to be received. They are intended as eternal commitments and messages that people just want to send – and then to tell someone about what they have said. It’s called Unrequited Love.

So, if you’ve sent a SentForever message of unrequited love to someone here on Earth, then I hope they enjoyed receiving it. As to whether someone else out in the Universe will receive it – well, my answer comes in two parts….

If you sent a SentForever message, do you think it will be received? Let us know.