This version of David Bowie’s Space Oddity is off the planet

Commander Chris Hadfield has done many amazing things in his career, not least of all spending some time looking after the International Space Station. While he was there, the social-media-savvy astronaut conducted little experiments that were suggested by his fan base back on Planet Earth, and posted videos showing the results.

As if being a space explorer wasn’t enough, the commander also happens to be a pretty decent musician, and in his spare time while on the ISS he recorded music for an album, teaming up with earthly rockers to record a track called Is Somebody Singing? (sometimes shortened to ISS). 

But surely Cmdr Hadfield’s greatest contribution to humanity is this version of Space Oddity, recorded on the ISS and released after he handed over control of the station to the next commander, but before he returned home.

Watching the video, you have to remind yourself that what you’re seeing is real, not some green screen background shot in a studio with the singer dangling about on wire. How cool that we live in a time when this can actually happen!

Space Oddity was written and performed by David Bowie in July 1969, just nine days before Apollo 11 landed on the moon. Major Tom is a fictional astronaut who later appeared in Bowie’s songs Ashes to Ashes and Hallo Spaceboy.

Listen to Commander Chis Hadfield’s version of this iconic song and tell us what you think!