Commander Chris Hadfield on board the International Space Station is seen floating in zero-gravity while strumming his acoustic guitar and singing to David Bowie's 1969 classic "Space Oddity" in a five-minute clip that has now gone viral
A music video shot aboard the International Space Station went viral on Monday, turning an astronaut into an overnight music sensation with his zero-gravity version of David Bowie's hit "Space Oddity." As the first Canadian to command the space station, a $100 million project of 15 nations, Chris Hadfield had already earned himself a place in the history books.
But as he prepared to return home on Monday after more than five months in orbit, Hadfield released a poignant "cyberspace" rendition of Bowie's song, which was first released in 1969 just ahead of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
The video, with its familiar refrain "Ground Control to Major Tom," had more than 1.5 million hits on YouTube early Monday afternoon and was being touted as the first music video ever filmed in space. Complete with re-worked lyrics and high quality footage that Hadfield and his crew mates shot aboard the orbital outpost, the video shows the astronaut singing about the impending end of his space mission while floating in mid-air above the blue Earth.
"Though I've flown 100,000 miles, I'm feeling very still and before too long I know it's time to go," the astronaut croons. Hadfield, NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, actually have racked up many millions of miles (kilometres) as they circled about 250 miles (402 km) above the planet over the past 5-1/2 months.
Hadfield's singing and acoustic guitar playing is accompanied by stunning video of the space station flying around the planet, a guitar free-floating and an eerie shot of a spacesuit at night.
The video, which was put together with the help of Hadfield's son Evan and with the support of David Bowie, ends with a Soyuz capsule parachuting to Earth. The music video caps a public outreach campaign Hadfield has conducted since before he blasted off for the station in December 2012, sharing comments and photographs on Twitter and other social media outlets. The music video is not Hadfield's first public performance.
He is the lead vocalist and bass guitar player in the Houston-based all-astronaut rock band, Max Q.
Lyrics of the song Space Oddity:
Ground control to major Tom
Ground control to major Tom
Take your protein pills and put your helmet on
(Ten) Ground control (Nine) to major Tom (Eight)
(Seven, six) Commencing countdown (Five), engines on (Four)
(Three, two) Check ignition (One) and may gods (Blastoff) love be with you
This is ground control to major Tom, you've really made the grade
And the papers want to know whose shirts you wear
Now it's time to leave the capsule if you dare
This is major Tom to ground control, I'm stepping through the door
And I'm floating in a most peculiar way
And the stars look very different today
Here am I sitting in a tin can far above the world
Planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do
Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles, I'm feeling very still
And I think my spaceship knows which way to go
Tell my wife I love her very much, she knows
Ground control to major Tom, your circuit's dead, there's something wrong
Can you hear me, major Tom?
Can you hear me, major Tom?
Can you hear me, major Tom?
Can you... Here am I sitting in my tin can far above the Moon
Planet Earth is blue and there's nothing I can do
Watch the original David Bowie song here:
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