David Bowie: Space Oddity with geek appeal

David Bowie appealed to a lot of people with a lot of peculiar leanings. And for those of us with a sciencey, spacey, creepy-crawly leaning, the connection was a powerful one.

Now I can’t say his nerd-appeal was universal, but consider the evidence: back in 1971, Bowie asked if there was life on Mars. Four years later NASA space probes Viking I and II landed on the red planet looking for answers. He is the only musician that I can think of who has an endangered, sexually dimorphic spider named after him. And who else’s music has been performed on the International Space Station?

Commander Chris Hadfield’s cover of 1969’s Space Oddity is the apogee of zero-G pop-covers. His orbital homage to the Thin White Duke is hands-down the most compelling video from the ISS and popular too: it’s had 27.5 million views on YouTube.

Here is a film made by an astronaut — a career built on conformity , self-control and precision —  in praise of one whose life followed a directly opposite path. Bowie allowed us to indulge the flamboyant and freakier elements of our own nature. I wonder if it’s the reason for his added appeal among hard-core rationalists.

This morning, Commander Hadfield tweeted:

Ashes to ashes, dust to stardust. Your brilliance inspired us all. Goodbye Starman. pic.twitter.com/FbcxlAzces

— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) January 11, 2016