Queen’s Brian May reacts to ‘Under Pressure’ waking up The Artemis II crew

CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen and NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch, Victor Glover speak with ABC News from the Orion spacecraft as it heads to the moon, April 2, 2026. (NASA)

By Jill Lances

April 09, 2026 at 10:15 am EDT

"Under Pressure," Queen's iconic collaboration with David Bowie, is one of the songs that was used to wake up the astronauts on Artemis II.

NASA revealed the Artemis II wake-up playlist, featuring songs selected by the members of the Artemis crew. The Queen/Bowie track woke up the astronauts on Wednesday, day eight of the 10-day mission.

Queen's Brian May, who has a degree in astrophysics, reacted to the news on Instagram, writing that he was "Honoured" by the news.

“Happy to be waking up the heroes in their space ship rounding up their amazing trip around the Moon!!” he wrote in the post’s caption. “Happy Landings guys !! You rock !!! Bri.”

"Under Pressure" was released as a single in October 1981 and later appeared on Queen's 1982 album, Hot Space. It went to #1 in the U.K. and was a top-40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. It was later sampled by Vanilla Ice for his hit track "Ice Ice Baby."