Greetings to the Universe in 55 Different Languages A golden
phonograph record was attached to each of the Voyager spacecraft
that were launched almost 25 years ago. One of the purposes was
to send a message to extraterrestrials who might find the
spacecraft as the spacecraft journeyed through interstellar
space. In addition to pictures and music and sounds from earth,
greetings in 55 languages were included. NASA asked Dr Carl
Sagan of Cornell University to assemble a greeting and gave him
the freedom to choose the format and what would be included.
Because of the launch schedule, Sagan (and those he got to help
him) was not given a lot of time. Linda Salzman Sagan was given
the task of assembling the greetings. The story behind the
creation of the "interstellar message" is chronicled in the
book, "Murmurs of Earth", by Carl Sagan, et al. Unfortunately,
not much information is given about the individual speakers.
Many of the speakers were from Cornell University and the
surrounding communities. They were giv