Astronaut Sarah Gillis became the first person ever to play the violin in space, performing “Rey’s Theme” from John Williams’ score to the film “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” while orbiting Earth aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.
Gillis beamed her performance on Friday to student musicians around the world through the international El Sistema network. The students, with audio and video links back to Gillis in space, united as a globally distributed orchestra, and together they raised money for El Sistema and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
“Bringing together global talent, this performance symbolizes unity and hope, highlighting the resilience and potential of children everywhere,” Gillis said in remarks introducing her performance.
Adding to her firsts, Gillis, who is also an engineer for SpaceX, was one of two astronauts to complete the first commercial spacewalk on Thursday, spending nearly two hours outside the spacecraft to test SpaceX’s new extravehicular activity suits.
