Ground station chillax

"11,2 km/s" is the official theme music for ESA's Estrack ground station network. It was composed by Gautier Acher, a 17-year-old student living in Paris, France, and entered in the 2015 Tracking Station Music Contest, which celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Estrack network.

Gautier's top-ranked entry was selected from a field 117 submissions received from over a dozen countries.

Gautier wrote: This track is a triptych that shows space is vast, but is full of interesting things, such as humankind, stars, comets, planets... It describes great achievements, in the past, and in the future.

While only three entrants could win prizes in the music contest, and only 10 could be at the top, the ESA judging panel praised all 117 submissions.

Judges commented that, "We heard some marvellous stuff created by people who are passionate, motivated and imaginative in their pursuit of music that reflects the central themes of exploration into our Universe, technological excellence and the dreams of humanity’s journeys into space."

In 1975, the ground station at Villafranca in Spain became the kernel of the ESA tracking network, which now comprises 10 stations in seven countries and in 2015 celebrates four decades of providing links to space for ESA's science, Earth, observatory and exploration missions.

Since inception, Estrack has expanded worldwide and today employs cutting-edge technology to link mission controllers with spacecraft orbiting Earth, voyaging deep in our Solar System and anywhere in between (more information in our Estrack web site http://www.esa.int/estrack).

Congratulations the top 10 entrants as well as the top three prize winners: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Operations/Estrack/Music_contest_winners

Special congratulations to Gautier Acher https://soundcloud.com/gautier-acher