A True Space Oddity

Simply amazing...

I know that it has gone viral almost instantaneously, it was still quite interesting to see the amount of production, camera angles and shifting and even the sound quality was very decent.  Chris Hadfield has been more of a celebrity than others on their tour through the International Space Station.  Being musically gifted with a decent voice and a guitar that has been circulating around the ISS, he made headlines via his endless amounts of photos and also his video collaboration with the Barenaked Ladies.  Check out my article surrounding that video (AFGM: Is Somebody Singing?).

"The guitar is a small bodied Larrivée Parlor that was delivered to the ISS by Shuttle Discovery STS-105, August 2001 as part of the psychological management program for astronauts. Almost 12 years in space." -anotherlook



Even though you can get the jist of the video from the description and from what you've heard across some of the local (and national) newspapers, here is Chris Hadfield doing his final performance (we think)

"Covering someone and something as iconic as this is fraught with comparison. This video rewrites the rule book! BEAUTIFUL! Safe journey home Commander..." -Nicola Goodchild



A revised version of David Bowie's Space Oddity, recorded by Commander Chris Hadfield on board the International Space Station.  With thanks to Emm Gryner, Joe Corcoran, Andrew Tidby and Evan Hadfield for all their hard work.

Find out more:

Twitter: twitter.com/Cmdr_Hadfield
Facebook: www.facebook.com/AstronautChrisHadfield?­­fref=ts
Google+: plus.google.com/113978637743265603454/po­­sts/p/pub

"1/2 million viewers in 12 hours. This one clip has done more for space travel and research in one afternoon than all of NASA TV has achieved in 30 years." -mrplease66

Of course you get those certain people that despite the feat that mankind has made and the attention that comes along to the NASA program, some people are just simply not happy unless they are complaining as you can see below:

"Shaking my head. My taxes are for education and welfare programs not to fund a prancing fool in space. you know the government is too big when it can create this video and not apologizing." -detabbed

Of course, this is usually a few and far between.  Don't think for a second that others do not come to the rescue of these trollers, as you can see one of the any responses.

"You mean this video shot in his off time, with a digital camera, edited on the ground, sung by a man who's done more for this country than you?  How about I tell you how to spend your free time?  What's the most stressful part of your day? His is living in 0G in a tin can with a bedroom smaller than your toilet.  Even if he was being paid to do this he's earned it by educating the children and inspiring others to do something with their lives." -KMCA779

So just to shut up the trollers, what does an astronaut do when not jammin out on the guitar?

A typical day for the crew begins with a wake-up at 06:00, followed by post-sleep activities and a morning inspection of the station. The crew then eats breakfast and takes part in a daily planning conference with Mission Control before starting work at around 08:10. The first scheduled exercise of the day follows, after which the crew continues work until 13:05. Following a one-hour lunch break, the afternoon consists of more exercise and work before the crew carries out its pre-sleep activities beginning at 19:30, including dinner and a crew conference. The scheduled sleep period begins at 21:30. In general, the crew works ten hours per day on a weekday, and five hours on Saturdays, with the rest of the time their own for relaxation or work catch-up.

The station provides crew quarters for each member of the expedition's crew, with two 'sleep stations' in the Zvezda and four more installed in Harmony.  The American quarters are private, approximately person-sized soundproof booths. The Russian crew quarters include a small window, but do not provide the same amount of ventilation or block the same amount of noise as their American counterparts. A crewmember can sleep in a crew quarter in a tethered sleeping bag, listen to music, use a laptop, and store personal items in a large drawer or in nets attached to the module's walls. The module also provides a reading lamp, a shelf and a desktop.  Visiting crews have no allocated sleep module, and attach a sleeping bag to an available space on a wall—it is possible to sleep floating freely through the station, but this is generally avoided because of the possibility of bumping into sensitive equipment.  It is important that crew accommodations be well ventilated; otherwise, astronauts can wake up oxygen-deprived and gasping for air, because a bubble of their own exhaled carbon dioxide has formed around their heads.

Hope that provides a little more insight into the daily works.  Now to bring the focus back to music, Chris has not only been (in his free time) using social media to it's advantage, but also has been doing some solo material.



I mean, that's what passions are for right?  You're damn right I would be strapping my guitar to my back if I was getting sent 350+ kilometers above the earth.  What do you think of Chris' music and his voyage on the ISS?  Do you feel his social media and musical presence has hindered or helped the development of NASA and the ISS?  If nothing else, it made a whole new breed of aspiring astronauts.