Astronaut Chris Hadfield Performs Bowie's 'Space Oddity' and Becomes Internet Sensation (Video)

Who ever thought that an adaptation of David Bowie's 1969 song, "Space Oddity," would prove to be so popular? A recently-released music video has already attracted over a million hits, and it's still going strong. It probably doesn't hurt that astronaut Chris Hadfield is the one singing the newly revised song--from space.

The video itself is actually a collaborative effort, involving Canadian musician Emm Gryner, Canadian filmmaker Andrew Tidby, Canadian producer Joe Corcoran and Hadfield's son, Evan. Yet the idea for the entire project was all Hadfield's. He first approached Gryner on his current mission, asking if she'd like to help him put together a music video based on "Space Oddity." Her answer was a definitive "yes."

It's not surprising that Hadfield and Gryner partnered together. They first collaborated in 2004 when Gryner recorded "Christopher," commemorating Hadfield's first spacewalk. According to Gryner's blog, she's always adored space.

"Even as a young kid I'd lay on the floor with the Rand McNally space atlas and just read in amazement about our universe and the world beyond Earth," she writes on her blog.

There's another reason why Gryner was perfect for Hadfield's project, though. About ten years ago, she sang with David Bowie in his band. However, she never did officially play "Space Oddity" during her stint with the musicians.

Now, the music video is taking the Internet by storm. It took six months to create the compilation. Gryner came up with the piano music in the beginning of the video, and then had Corcoran blow it up into a fully produced song. They added space station noises in the background to eventually create new rendition of "Space Oddity."

Now after becoming an Internet sensation, Hadfield is returning to Earth. The astronaut is leaving the International Space Station today (Monday) and is due to land in southern Kazakhstan at 10:31 p.m. EDT. Although Hadfield may be back on Earth, though, his music video will continue to remain out of this world.

Want to see the music video for yourself? Check out out below, courtesy of Chris Hadfield and YouTube.