Commander Chris Hadfield gave new meaning to the song "Space Oddity" when he bid farewell to the International Space Station with his own music video rendition of the David Bowie classic.
The Canadian astronaut ended his five-month stint on the I.S.S. by tweeting his over 821,000 followers the YouTube video on Sunday. He is seen "floating in a most peculiar way" through the space station with guitar in hand, as spectacular views of Earth loom in the background.
The video went viral with over 2.7 million views as of Monday evening.
With deference to the genius of David Bowie, here's Space Oddity, recorded on Station. A last glimpse of the World. youtube.com/watch?v=KaOC9d…
— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) May 12, 2013
Among those more than 2.7 million viewers was, apparently, the man behind the song himself — or at least the man behind David Bowie's official Facebook page.
"It’s possibly the most poignant version of the song ever created," Bowie called Hadfield's performance, and he described the video as "breathtaking."
Hadfield has been tweeting a series of YouTube videos from the space station to drum up awareness and excitement for space travel. He's demonstrated how to open a can of soda, clip your nails and make a peanut butter sandwich in space — and what crying looks like in zero gravity.
The 53-year-old space traveler is scheduled to return to earth on Monday.