Question
James Brown with spaceship taking off into the starry sky in the background

Which James Brown song did NASA include on a wake-up playlist for astronauts?

Last updated: October 5, 2025

Being an astronaut is pretty much the coolest job in the universe, but getting woken up in space comes with some serious perks. Since the mid-1960s, NASA has been treating their space crews to personalized musical alarm clocks, beaming everything from Sinatra classics to college fight songs up to the cosmos. Which James Brown song has NASA included on a wake-up playlist for astronauts?

Correct Answer: I Got You (I Feel Good)

(Source)

On March 14, 1989, somewhere 250 miles above Earth, a crew of astronauts floated in their sleeping bags aboard a space shuttle. Mission Control in Houston was about to deliver their daily wake-up call, and today's selection came courtesy of spacecraft communicator David Low's personal playlist. The speakers crackled to life, and James Brown's unmistakable voice was screaming "Wo! I feel good, I knew that I would now" from "I Got You (I Feel Good)" across the vacuum of space. And Low wasn't the only Brown fan at NASA, that song was used five more times in the '90s and another of his songs (“It’s Time to Love (Put a Little Love in Your Heart)”) made an appearance in 1991. It makes perfect sense when you think about it. If you're floating around in zero gravity conducting important science experiments while orbiting the planet at 17,500 miles per hour, you probably need all the good vibes you can get.

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