Retired Astronaut Had Help From David Bowie To Re-Post The Vid

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield made quite a splash with his video rendition of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" recorded while on orbit aboard the International Space Station.

The video went viral, gathering more than 23 million views. Bowie himself called the cover "quite possibly the most poignant version of the song ever created."

But when the original one-year agreement between Hadfield and Bowie expired, the video was pulled from YouTube. Mashable reports that the astronaut, the Canadian Space Agency, David Bowie, and Bowie's publisher immediately went to work to create a new deal that would allow the video to live on.

Hadfield says that the process was complicated, because the work was created in space aboard a facility built by 15 countries and which overflew the entire planet while being recorded. Questions included "whose copyright laws applied; Which Space Agency owned the recording; and whose jurisdiction was he in when it was recorded?"

The good news is that there is now a new two-year deal, and the video has been re-posted to YouTube, partly due to Bowie's rave review of the cover. And when that deal expires, Hadfield said that the legal process for another renewal should be "relatively straightforward."

(Image from file)

FMI: http://youtu.be/zrHHsP8BACg