WATCH: A Canadian astronaut performs David Bowie's 'Space Oddity' in space

Chris Hadfield handed over control of the International Space Station on Sunday, but not before recording this amazing first music video in outer space

Chris Hadfield sings Bowie
(Image credit: CSA-ASC/YouTube)

If you had to guess what was on any given astronaut's iPod, Davie Bowie's "Space Oddity" would be a pretty good pick. Bowie's dark celebration of space travel, recorded in 1969, has an ambiguously unhappy ending, but it's a great song that spins a believable tale of the loneliness ("here am I sitting in a tin can") and distant adulation ("the papers want to know whose shirt you wear") of floating above the world.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.