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 (kilometers) as they
circled about 250 miles 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.
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REUTERS