1972: Aggie War Hymn Played On The Moon

On Dec. 13, 1972, astronauts on the surface of the moon woke to the strains of the Aggie “War Hymn,” courtesy of NASA flight controller Gerry Griffin ’56.

You can listen to the moment here, and a little Aggie humor that followed: http://apollo17.org/?t=160:24:10

(Note: That site works best on a desktop computer; for mobile devices, go to https://archive.org/details/Apollo17 and start recording #35 at the 2-hour, 31-minute, 27-second mark.)

It was on this flight, Apollo 17, that Gene Cernan left the last human footprints on the moon. Cernan passed away in January.

Cernan’s response to the A&M wakeup call also pointed out that he was a Purdue Boilermaker, which appeared to cut no ice back in Houston; the mission’s remaining wakeup calls included Roberta Flack and the Doors.

Griffin, a Distinguished Alumnus of Texas A&M, was lead flight director on lunar landing missions Apollo 12, 15 and 17 and later director of Houston’s Johnson Space Center. During his tenure, the “War Hymn” was also used as a wakeup call for astronauts on the space shuttle in 1983.

On space shuttle flights in 2006 and 2008, Aggie music served as a wakeup for astronaut Mike Fossum ’80. He was serenaded with the “War Hymn” in 2006, and responded with, “Whoop! Gig 'em Aggies!” as well as thanks to his Aggie wife, family and friends; listen here. In 2008, it was “The Spirit of Aggieland,” and he responded, “Whoop! There’s a spirit can ne’er be told. That’s the Spirit of Aggieland.” This January, Fossum retired from NASA and became the head of Texas A&M’s Galveston campus.