Ground Control to Commander Chris Hadfield: 'Hallo Spaceboy'

He's an astronaut, and a rock star.

As Commander Chris Hadfield, 53, heads back home from the International Space Station, his video of David Bowie's Space Oddity is trending on YouTube and  exceeding 10 million views in just a couple of days. It's being called the first music video recorded in space. Bowie himself is tickled pink, tweeting 'Hallo Spaceboy' to the astronaut in honor of another celestial Bowie tune.

Hadfield is using his new status as a social-media celebrity to educate and delight an audience that might not otherwise be interested in the science and art of space flight.

The first Canadian to walk in space, Hadfield has about 850,000 Twitter followers. If you're just meeting him today, catch up on this unique spaceman, courtesy of the tech website Mashable, where you can see Hadfield's five most memorable moments in space, including a Google+ Hangout with William Shatner (that's Captain Kirk to you).

Most of all, Hadfield has given new meaning to the old legend of astronauts having the "Right Stuff." His personal, creative and inspirational messages have struck a chord in a world where spaceflight has become routine and NASA is ceding the future of space to the private sector. More than just the obvious appearances on daytime and nighttime TV, we hope that Hadfield can lead all of us to a renewed sense of mission, in the quest to leverage what we learn in space to solve our problems here at home.

 

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