We Burned for the Blue

Intro

Ten, nine, eight—(oh) ten, nine, eight—(yeah)

Radio hum, coffee and light, we're awake (whoa)

Verse

They drew lines on maps and they drew lines in steel,

Drafted dreams in basements, turned blueprints into zeal.

Kids pressed their faces to gramophone glass, wide-eyed,

Watching metal birds chase dawn across the tide.

Flags on sleeves, code on boards, another sleepless night,

Trajectories and payoffs, neon-free flight (ha!)

Wires, welds, and prayers that lift off the floor,

People in rooms saying launch when the numbers roar.

Pre-chorus

Mission control, steady hands, breathe slow (breathe slow),

Telemetry singing like a river on the go (on the go)

Count the seconds, hold your line, don't let go (don't let go),

We trade the doubt for a fire in the radio.

Chorus

We burned for the blue, we aimed for the moon, we ran to the edge and flew, yeah

We burned for the blue, we aimed for the moon, we ran to the edge and flew, yeah

NASA lights, midnight fights, and morning news (ooh),

We burned for the blue, we aimed for the moon—(we aimed) we flew.

Verse

Suit up, helmet on, breath fogs the visor glass,

Pad lights blink like constellations from the past.

Fuel tanks like thunder, engines feed the hymn,

Rockets write new letters where old doubts had been.

Signals hop the oceans, messages span the sea,

Rival hands in the same sky, different histories.

But under that white plume, every face looked the same,

One small step, then a name, then a name.

Pre-chorus

Voices crack and laugh and grit through the static (ah),

Numbers turn to motion, numbers turn to magic (whoa),

Hold the line, steady voice, keep the cadence tight,

We chase a dot in the dark until the world gets light.

Chorus

We burned for the blue, we aimed for the moon, we ran to the edge and flew, yeah

We burned for the blue, we aimed for the moon, we ran to the edge and flew, yeah

NASA lights, midnight fights, and morning news (let's go),

We burned for the blue, we aimed for the moon—(we aimed) we flew.

Bridge

There are names on plaques and there are songs on tapes,

There are hands that fixed the bolts and hands that wrote the dates.

Some stayed behind to steady every dawn,

While others drifted farther than their fathers had gone.

Oh—(oh) every voice in the room carried the same hymn,

We reach, we try, we fail, we grin (we grin, we grin).

Chorus

We burned for the blue, we aimed for the moon, we ran to the edge and flew, yeah

We burned for the blue, we aimed for the moon, we ran to the edge and flew, yeah

NASA lights, midnight fights, and morning news (bring it),

We burned for the blue, we aimed for the moon—(we aimed) we flew.