Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield's rendition of "Space Oddity," an astronomically popular music video shot in the International Space Station, is going offline today. According to a tweet by Hadfield, the song was posted under a year-long license from David Bowie's publishers, and it expires today. That means that the song will need to be pulled from YouTube, although Hadfield's son and publicist Evan says they're hoping to find a way to make it available again. "We're working with the CSA and Bowie's licensers to hopefully find a way to keep it up," he says, though he declined further comment.
You have one day left to watch the ‘Space Oddity’ music video shot in space
is a senior tech and policy editor focused on online platforms and free expression. Adi has covered virtual and augmented reality, the history of computing, and more for The Verge since 2011.
So far, the video has garnered over 22 million views, and it’s one of the projects that made Hadfield the unofficial face of the ISS in 2012 and 2013, along with a recorded rendition of his own song “Jewel in the Night” from the ISS. During his stay in space, Hadfield was interviewed by William Shatner and participated in a highly publicized interactive video conference on Google’s Hangout; he finally resigned from the Canadian Space Agency in June of 2013 after a decades-long career. If you want to watch his rendition of Bowie, this could be your last chance.
Bowie's last day - we had permission for a year, so our Space Oddity video comes down today. One last look: http://t.co/z6umXHoPCk
— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) May 13, 2014 Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.
