Astronaut's zero-g rendition of Bowie makes triumphant return

[Buster's Uncle]

Astronaut's zero-g rendition of Bowie makes triumphant return
Chris Hadfield's hit rendition of David Bowie's famous space song is once again available for all to enjoy.
CNET
by  Amanda Kooser @akooser /November 4, 2014 8:40 AM PST

Space fans mourned back in May of this year when Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield's poignant music video cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" was removed from YouTube. It had always been a project with an expiration date since the agreement that allowed the cover to be available to the world had a one-year lifespan. A new agreement has been reached and the video is once again available.

"Space Oddity" was Hadfield's farewell ode at the end of his time as commander of the International Space Station. He recorded his guitar part and vocals while in orbit. The video intersperses time-lapse footage from space with shots of Hadfield singing, artfully cut to make him look just as alone in space as Major Tom of the song.

The new licensing agreement is good for two years, so you have plenty of time to get your fix. You won't be the only one. The video has counted up over 23.5 million views since it first went up in May of 2013. Hadfield estimates that re-posts and international television broadcasts likely bumped the actual viewer numbers up into the hundreds of millions. He describes the song, and the public response to it, as "a humbling experience, shared with the whole planet."

Hadfield explains that the legal process to renew the agreement took quite a bit of time. Negotiations began the day the video was taken down and have now culminated with the renewal. "We're proud to have helped bring Bowie's genius from 1969 into space itself in 2013, and now ever-forward," he writes.


http://www.cnet.com/news/astronaut-chris-hadfields-space-oddity-makes-triumphant-return/#ftag=YHF65cbda0

[Lord Avalon]

Nice. Would have liked to have seen him wearing a headset and photoshopped into ground control clothes/background for those parts.