Rush - Countdown (Official Music Video)

I supported Shuttle missions from STS-26 to STS-135. It was a tradition to play "Countdown" continuously in my car as I was making my way into work on launch day. After the program ended, I would only hear it when playing "Signals" at home or in the car. Fast forward 11 years. Launch day for the newest vehicle in U.S Space Exploration, Artemis. Heading in to support the launch, a few blocks from the house, the news guy on the radio mentions the "Countdown of Artemis". Countdown? Artemis? COUNTDOWN!!! I stopped the car, turned around, went back home, grabbed "Signals", started "Countdown" and headed in to work. The tradition continues... Ad Astra!

I have a friend who is an astronaut and has been in space. I asked him if he knew of this song, and with a wide eyed grin, he replied - "every astronaut knows this song". Now how cool is that! Rush frames the excitement of the space journey so well, it had to register with these space pioneers as well! For the record, I've seen Rush 23 times, beginning with GUP and can't begin to say how impressive each and every show was. They're living evidence that the Mozart's and Bach's of the past, still exist in modern times.

35 years later, this song still inspires me. Every time I see a rocket launch I think of it. How many of us Rush fans grew up to be engineers, scientists, or techies of some sort? These three guys aren't just rock stars; they actually inspire people to do cool stuff with their lives.

I hope this song becomes a hundreds of years long tradition, played each time as more and more rockets go into space

That part starting at 5:02 until the end of the song is just so, so, so awesome how they play overtop of the radio transmissions. God, it gives me chills.

Loved that album. I wonder if anyone will read this but this came out when I was 16 in high school. Today I am a software engineer and my current project is an engine control unit for a new rocket motor for a Lunar Lander. So thank you all for this way back when. Hope to see you guys on the moon :)

Fantastic band...i was one lucky one...to see RUSH in live in LA 1994☝️

This is one of Rush's most underrated and underappreciated songs ever.

3:29 Bass? Foot pedals? Vocals? Synths? Geddy Lee: "Yes."

The best band ever

“We're only immortal for a limited time.” - Neil Peart, Dreamline, Roll The Bones (1991). RIP Neil Peart. September 12, 1952 - January 7, 2020 (Age 67). He is and always will be the best drummer in the world. Nobody can't even come close to matching his style. The king of the drumming world. I grew up spending countless hours listening to Rush songs on MTV and Stereo Panama radio station from 1984- 1991. He wrote most of Rush song lyrics by adding a unique mix of ancient philosophy, comic books action sequences and strong messages that shaped my teenage years. Unique mix of Progressive Rock & Sci-Fi Rock ! Great nostalgia. Neil Peart you will remain forever closer to the heart of all Rush fans worldwide ! You are now one with the spirit of radio !

The point in this amazing song where Geddy is singing, playing the bass guitar and keyboards at the same time still to this day raises the hair in the back of my neck. I really miss these guys but am so glad to have 40 + years of music to fall back on.

"this magic day when super science mingles with the bright stuff of dreams" -- he was such a poet --- RIP Neal

This song gives me goosebumps. BTW Signals is an underrated album just like Grace Under Pressure and Power Windows.

As a GenXer growing up watching the shuttle launches, a drummer, and a kid who was a mechanical dreamer riding his bicycle all across nassau county long island. Only one band could combine both music and mechanics into such a beautiful song. That band was Rush. Today at 50 and missing both my youth and the America i grew up in, this song really hits home

Rest In Peace, Mr. Peart. You inspired us all!

"venting vapors like the breath of a sleeping white dragon". love that line.

Countdown is like the space shuttle version of Red Barchetta. Much like the way I picture myself speeding along the highway in a red Ferrari trying to outrun a gleaming, alloy air-car whenever I listen to Red Barchetta, I get the same kind of image when I listen to Countdown of being in the space shuttle on the launch pad and blasting off into space. Only Rush could paint such a vivid picture of these machines through their music and lyrics in these two songs; they're like mini-movies that play in your head.

Goose bumps. Every song on Signals is killer and this one perfectly finishes the album.

Hard not to get chills listening to this song about the Shuttle launch