# Messages humanity has sent to space: a timeline > Since the 1960s humanity has sent a small number of deliberate messages beyond Earth: radio messages aimed at planets and stars, and engraved plaques and Golden Records on spacecraft. This timeline lists the best known, each with a source. None has received a reply. Source: https://paxegosum.com/messages-to-space.html Part of the open letter Pax Ego Sum (https://paxegosum.com/). Author: Sebastian K. Published: 2026-10-21. ## The timeline. - **1962, Morse message.** In November 1962 the Soviet planetary radar at Yevpatoria sent three words in Morse code toward Venus: Mir, which means both peace and world, then Lenin and USSR. It was a radar test: the signal bounced off Venus and was received back on Earth. The institute that sent it calls it a forerunner of interstellar messages, not a true one. [IRE RAS](http://www.cplire.ru/html/ra&sr/irm/MIR-LENIN-SSSR.html) - **1972, Pioneer plaques.** Pioneer 10 launched on 2 March 1972 carrying a gold-anodized plaque with drawings of a man and a woman, the solar system and the Sun's position relative to 14 pulsars, with the hydrogen transition as its unit. Pioneer 11 followed on 5 April 1973 with the same plaque. Designed by Carl Sagan and Frank Drake, artwork by Linda Salzman Sagan. [NASA: Pioneer 10](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/pioneer-10/), [NASA: Pioneer 11](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/pioneer-11/) - **1974, Arecibo message.** On 16 November 1974 the Arecibo telescope sent 1,679 bits at 2380 MHz toward the globular cluster M13, about 25,000 light-years away, once, in about three minutes. [Cornell University](https://news.cornell.edu/stories/1999/11/25th-anniversary-first-attempt-phone-et-0) - **1977, Voyager Golden Records.** Voyager 2 (20 August 1977) and Voyager 1 (5 September 1977) each carry a record with 115 images, greetings in 55 languages and music from many cultures and eras, plus printed messages from President Jimmy Carter and UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim. [NASA: Golden Record contents](https://science.nasa.gov/mission/voyager/golden-record-contents/) - **1999, Cosmic Call 1.** Sent on 24 May and 30 June 1999 from the RT-70 radio telescope at Yevpatoria, Ukraine. Organized by the Texas company Team Encounter, with much of the money from small donations; its scientific primer was written by Yvan Dutil and Stéphane Dumas, and Alexander Zaitsev oversaw the transmission. [Smithsonian Magazine](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-couple-guys-built-most-ambitious-alien-outreach-project-ever-180960473/) - **2003, Cosmic Call 2.** Sent on 6 July 2003 from the same telescope in Yevpatoria, to five more stars. [Smithsonian Magazine](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-couple-guys-built-most-ambitious-alien-outreach-project-ever-180960473/) - **2008, Across the Universe.** On 4 February 2008 NASA beamed the Beatles song Across the Universe toward the star Polaris from a Deep Space Network antenna near Madrid, Spain, to mark NASA's 50th anniversary. [NBC News](https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna22951001) - **2008, A Message from Earth.** On 9 October 2008, 501 messages chosen in a competition on the social network Bebo were sent from Yevpatoria to the planet Gliese 581c, about 20 light-years away. [Universe Today](https://www.universetoday.com/articles/messages-from-earth-beamed-to-alien-world) - **2009, Hello from Earth.** On 28 August 2009, 25,880 messages from the public were sent from the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex in Australia to Gliese 581d, a National Science Week initiative of COSMOS magazine with the support of NASA and CSIRO. [Project press release](https://www.wilsondasilva.com/post/australians-twitter-to-outer-space), [Wikipedia: Gliese 581d](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliese_581d) - **2013, Lone Signal.** Launched on 17 June 2013 from the Jamesburg Earth Station in California, beaming public messages toward Gliese 526, about 18 light-years away. The first message was free, further ones were paid. [CNN Money](https://money.cnn.com/2013/06/17/technology/enterprise/lone-signal/index.html) - **2017, Sónar Calling GJ 273b.** Sent on 16 to 18 October 2017 from the EISCAT antenna in Tromsø, Norway, to the planet GJ 273b at Luyten's Star, 12.4 light-years away, with music commissioned as a tribute to the Sónar festival. Organized by Sónar, the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia and METI International. [GeekWire](https://www.geekwire.com/2017/sonar-calling-campaign-broadcasts-music-messages-alien-super-earth/) - **2022, Beacon in the Galaxy (proposal).** A team led by Jonathan Jiang of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory proposed a new binary message for a possible future transmission. As far as published sources show, it has not been sent. [arXiv: 2203.04288](https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.04288) ## Who decides what we send? No one, formally. Most messages so far were sent by scientists, companies or festivals. The rules scientists have agreed for replying to a detection, and the case against sending at all, are on the page [How to contact aliens](https://paxegosum.com/how-to-contact-aliens.html#h-debate). ## Why a letter, not a beam. Every radio message on this list is a shout toward one point in the sky. Most will travel for decades or millennia before anyone could hear them. A letter on the web is closer: it is already where people look and where machines read. ## Questions you may have. **What was the first message sent to aliens?** The first message made for other civilizations was the plaque on Pioneer 10, launched in 1972, and the first deliberate radio message was the Arecibo message of 16 November 1974. A Soviet radar test in November 1962 had already sent the Morse words Mir, Lenin and USSR toward Venus; its makers call it a forerunner, not a true interstellar message. **What did the Arecibo message say?** Its 1,679 bits form a picture 23 bits wide and 73 high. It shows the numbers one to ten, the elements that make up DNA, the formulas of its building blocks and its double helix, a human figure, the solar system and the Arecibo telescope. It was sent toward the star cluster M13. **What is on the Voyager Golden Record?** 115 images, spoken greetings in 55 languages, music from many cultures and eras, and printed messages from President Jimmy Carter and UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim. **Has any message to space received a reply?** No. None of the messages listed here has received a confirmed reply. **When will the messages arrive?** Radio travels at the speed of light, so a message reaches its target after as many years as the target is light-years away. A message to a planet 20 light-years away arrives after 20 years. The Arecibo message reaches the distance of M13 after about 25,000 years, by which time the cluster will have moved out of its path. ## More from this letter - [The letter](https://paxegosum.com/): Pax Ego Sum: the open letter itself - [Permission to contact](https://paxegosum.com/permission-to-contact.html): How to give aliens your consent, in writing - [How to contact aliens](https://paxegosum.com/how-to-contact-aliens.html): The ways humans have tried, with sources - [Galactic Federation](https://paxegosum.com/galactic-federation.html): A petition for readmission, from one human - [1420 MHz](https://paxegosum.com/hydrogen-line.html): The hydrogen line, and why SETI listens there - [If this is a simulation](https://paxegosum.com/simulation.html): The simulation argument, and a question for you - [Quotes](https://paxegosum.com/quotes.html): Voices on the cosmos, peace and contact