Skip to main content

Chris Hadfield's 'Space Oddity' returns to YouTube with David Bowie's agreement

Chris Hadfield's 'Space Oddity' returns to YouTube with David Bowie's agreement

Share this story

In case you missed astronaut Chris Hadfield's extraterrestrial rendition of David Bowie's "Space Oddity," the video is once again up on YouTube. The cover will enjoy a two year lifespan, thanks to a new agreement between him, David Bowie's publishers, and the Canadian Space Agency.

Hadfield was quick to stress in his blog post that there was "no rancour" involved in the removal of the original video, which was shot in space and viewed more than 23 million times over the course of a year. David Bowie himself described the cover as "possibly the most poignant version of the song ever created." The astronaut explained that the delayed return of the video was a "natural consequence" of the legal reapplication process. "Despite countless on-line expressions of frustration and desire, it wasn’t anyone’s ill-will or jealousy that kept this version of Oddity off YouTube," Hadfield wrote.