EDMONTON – The first ever music video shot in outer space is coming down.
Former commander of the International Space Station (ISS) Chris Hadfield’s cover of the 1969 David Bowie classic Space Oddity is being removed from YouTube Tuesday, as the one-year copyright lease expires.
The video, which features Hadfield playing an acoustic guitar while onboard the ISS, has garnered more than 22 million views.
After the Canadian astronaut tweeted the news early Tuesday morning, Space Oddity was trending Canada-wide.
Hadfield also posted to the social media site Reddit, saying, “We had permission from David Bowie’s people to post the video on YouTube for a year, and that year is up.”
“We are working on renewing the license for it, but as there are no guarantees when it comes to videos shot in space,” he added.
“We thought you might want to have one last look before we take it down.”
Besides David Bowie, the commander also needed permission from NASA, as well as all countries with a stake in the ISS.
Even though the song was recorded in space, copyright laws still apply to the video because the video was produced on Earth by his son Evan, who also helped distribute the video.
The exact time of removal on Tuesday is currently unknown.
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