Sir Paul McCartney to beam concert to astronauts

Former Beatle Paul McCartney will play "Good Day Sunshine" and one of his latest songs, "English Tea," to NASA astronaut Bill McArthur and Russian cosmonaut Valery Tokarev who are on an international space station 220 miles above the earth.

McCartney, who will be singing into space on Saturday from Anaheim, California via NASA television, got the idea when he discovered that the crew of the spaceship Discovery were treated to a burst of "Good Day Sunshine" in August as a wake-up call from Mission Control, reports Reuters.uk.

According to BBC News, &to=http://english.pravda.ru/culture/2003/03/19/44647.html' target=_blank>Sir Paul told his official website he decided to make the broadcast after Nasa used the song to wake the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery.

The link-up from his concert in Anaheim, California, will take place on 13 November shortly before 0600 GMT.

He said he was "extremely proud" to hear how the track had been used to let the Shuttle crew know the weather was good enough for an Earth landing.