When Liverpool's Echo and the Bunnymen released their fourth album, 'Ocean Rain,' in 1984, an overzealous PR copywriter declared it "the greatest album ever made." The aging post-punk band is getting one more chance to shoot for the moon with an unusual offer from the American space program.

NASA astronaut Timothy Korpa has contacted his favorite band to let them know he's planning to take 'Ocean Rain' with him on his next mission into outer space. Singer Ian McCulloch said in a prepared statement that he dreamed of being an astronaut as a kid. "I cannot wait to hear from Tim what it is like to listen to 'The Killing Moon' in the actual glow of the moon," he said.

Now his band can make a legitimate claim, as McCulloch put it, to being "the coolest band in the universe." MiniKiss, your time has come and gone.