WEBVTT 00:00:06.909 --> 00:00:09.970 Howdy Star Gazers and welcome to this special 00:00:09.970 --> 00:00:13.789 episode of Star Trails. My name is Drew and I'm 00:00:13.789 --> 00:00:16.370 going to do something a little different today. 00:00:16.769 --> 00:00:19.890 I'm going to discuss a song that's been stuck 00:00:19.890 --> 00:00:23.350 in my head for weeks now. If you recall a few 00:00:23.350 --> 00:00:26.390 episodes back, I mentioned the first production 00:00:26.390 --> 00:00:29.870 car in space was a Tesla Roadster that SpaceX 00:00:29.870 --> 00:00:33.549 launched into a giant heliocentric orbit. In 00:00:33.549 --> 00:00:37.109 the seat was Starman, a mannequin wearing a space 00:00:37.109 --> 00:00:41.289 suit, and the song Space Oddity by David Bowie 00:00:41.289 --> 00:00:48.810 was playing on a loop. And, since that episode, 00:00:49.049 --> 00:00:52.210 that song has been playing on a loop in my head. 00:00:52.689 --> 00:00:55.490 I've played along with it on my guitar. I've 00:00:55.490 --> 00:00:58.210 listened to alternate versions of it. I've studied 00:00:58.210 --> 00:01:01.109 covers of it by well -known artists. I've been 00:01:01.109 --> 00:01:04.230 absorbed in its history and disturbed by the 00:01:04.230 --> 00:01:07.230 story it tells. I've tried to learn how it was 00:01:07.230 --> 00:01:10.810 made and, last night, I even played it on a ukulele 00:01:10.810 --> 00:01:14.040 at a weekly jam session I attend. I've always 00:01:14.040 --> 00:01:17.040 admired this song, along with many others in 00:01:17.040 --> 00:01:20.159 Bowie's catalog, but it wasn't until recently 00:01:20.159 --> 00:01:22.920 that I really listened to it from both a narrative 00:01:22.920 --> 00:01:26.439 and harmonic perspective. And the more I learned 00:01:26.439 --> 00:01:29.519 about this song, its history and usage through 00:01:29.519 --> 00:01:32.760 the years, and its connection to space exploration, 00:01:33.359 --> 00:01:35.739 which existed from the moment it was released, 00:01:36.079 --> 00:01:39.569 I just seemed to enjoy it even more. So in this 00:01:39.569 --> 00:01:44.049 episode, I'm going to break down 1969's Space 00:01:44.049 --> 00:02:01.299 Oddity, David Bowie's very first hit song. This 00:02:01.299 --> 00:02:05.400 isn't just a story about an astronaut. It's about 00:02:05.400 --> 00:02:09.340 drifting, physically, musically, and emotionally. 00:02:10.159 --> 00:02:12.919 To properly investigate it, we need to set the 00:02:12.919 --> 00:02:17.780 scene. Space Oddity was released in 1969, right 00:02:17.780 --> 00:02:31.580 in the hottest stretch of the space race. In 00:02:31.580 --> 00:02:35.879 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the 00:02:35.879 --> 00:02:40.300 first man in space, famously musing about Earth's 00:02:40.300 --> 00:02:44.759 blue color from orbit. Not long after, Alan Shepard 00:02:44.759 --> 00:02:47.520 became the first American in space, and the race 00:02:47.520 --> 00:02:51.340 was on. Just eight years later, the United States 00:02:51.340 --> 00:02:54.060 was preparing for something that seemed impossible, 00:02:54.580 --> 00:03:11.349 landing a man on the moon. The previous year, 00:03:11.729 --> 00:03:15.870 Stanley Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odyssey was released. 00:03:16.449 --> 00:03:20.150 A slow -burn science fiction epic about a rogue 00:03:20.150 --> 00:03:24.289 AI and mankind's evolution from club -wielding 00:03:24.289 --> 00:03:27.819 early primates, to a spacefaring civilization. 00:03:41.580 --> 00:03:52.340 And even the title Space Oddity feels like a 00:03:52.340 --> 00:03:56.229 response to Kubrick's film. It's not an odyssey, 00:03:56.330 --> 00:03:59.469 as in a grand heroic journey, but it is something 00:03:59.469 --> 00:04:03.969 strange. These world events, and especially the 00:04:03.969 --> 00:04:07.189 movie, were factors that inspired Bowie to write 00:04:07.189 --> 00:04:11.150 Space Oddity, a sparse psychedelic folk song 00:04:11.150 --> 00:04:15.430 about an astronaut, Major Tom, who achieves orbit 00:04:15.430 --> 00:04:18.910 and the fame that goes with it. Yet something 00:04:18.910 --> 00:04:22.600 on his mission goes awry. and he helplessly watches 00:04:22.600 --> 00:04:25.879 Earth as he drifts away in space, presumably 00:04:25.879 --> 00:04:34.000 lost forever. Like a stage play or film, the 00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:37.720 song follows a three -act structure. We start 00:04:37.720 --> 00:04:41.120 from an orderly place, the control room of a 00:04:41.120 --> 00:04:49.629 launch facility. Major Tom is established as 00:04:49.629 --> 00:04:53.449 the hero. A countdown to lift -off quietly begins. 00:04:57.009 --> 00:04:59.709 If you're listening to the stereo version of 00:04:59.709 --> 00:05:02.149 the song, the countdown happens in your left 00:05:02.149 --> 00:05:05.410 channel, while Bowie's vocals occupy the right 00:05:05.410 --> 00:05:14.759 channel. In fact, in the stereo version, all 00:05:14.759 --> 00:05:17.759 the elements of this song are hard -panned left 00:05:17.759 --> 00:05:20.519 and right, which was a common technique of the 00:05:20.519 --> 00:05:23.360 era. I'm going to go over this more in a bit. 00:05:24.319 --> 00:05:28.699 In Act 2, Major Tom has achieved orbit, and the 00:05:28.699 --> 00:05:32.120 papers want to know whose shirts you wear, which 00:05:32.120 --> 00:05:35.779 I interpret as Tom achieving fame for his accomplishment. 00:05:36.339 --> 00:05:39.310 People are obsessed with him. much in the way 00:05:39.310 --> 00:05:43.050 celebrity reporters ask film stars who they are 00:05:43.050 --> 00:05:52.129 wearing at red carpet events. And now it's time 00:05:52.129 --> 00:05:55.509 for Major Tom to take his space walk to leave 00:05:55.509 --> 00:05:59.550 the capsule if he dares. However, something is 00:05:59.550 --> 00:06:03.329 wrong. Tom says he's floating in a most peculiar 00:06:03.329 --> 00:06:11.699 way and the stars look very different. There's 00:06:11.699 --> 00:06:25.240 a shift in the song's tone here. A guitar solo 00:06:25.240 --> 00:06:28.079 seems to send us farther into space, and when 00:06:28.079 --> 00:06:31.319 we return to the story, Major Tom is a hundred 00:06:31.319 --> 00:06:34.759 thousand miles away, virtually halfway to the 00:06:34.759 --> 00:06:47.860 moon. He makes one final plea. Meanwhile, ground 00:06:47.860 --> 00:07:01.500 control is panicking. In the final act, Major 00:07:01.500 --> 00:07:04.839 Tom seems strangely at ease with his predicament. 00:07:05.339 --> 00:07:08.279 Now he's floating far above the moon, watching 00:07:08.279 --> 00:07:27.779 Earth from afar. A cacophony of instruments and 00:07:27.779 --> 00:07:31.220 noise rises and eventually fades out as the song 00:07:31.220 --> 00:07:34.779 ends. And I'm immediately reminded of the ending 00:07:34.779 --> 00:07:39.399 of 2001, A Space Odyssey, when Dr. Dave Bowman 00:07:39.399 --> 00:07:42.259 takes a trippy journey through space and time 00:07:42.259 --> 00:07:45.220 before his transformation into the Star Child. 00:07:53.680 --> 00:07:57.860 The story of Major Tom is eerie and melancholy, 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:00.860 but what makes it really unsettling is everything 00:08:00.860 --> 00:08:04.759 happening underneath it. Space Oddity mostly 00:08:04.759 --> 00:08:09.120 orbits around the musical key of C major, but 00:08:09.120 --> 00:08:11.779 Bowie tosses in some gimmicks that make the song 00:08:11.779 --> 00:08:15.819 feel quite unstable. Without getting too far 00:08:15.819 --> 00:08:18.759 down into a music theory rabbit hole, let me 00:08:18.759 --> 00:08:22.060 explain what I mean by the song's key. Songs 00:08:22.060 --> 00:08:26.000 generally revolve around a tonal center, especially 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:28.740 pop songs which often cycle through the same 00:08:28.740 --> 00:08:32.320 three or four chords. Chords are derived from 00:08:32.320 --> 00:08:36.259 the musical key the song is written in. So imagine 00:08:36.259 --> 00:08:39.159 sitting at a piano and pressing only the white 00:08:39.159 --> 00:08:49.059 keys. Congratulations, you're playing in the 00:08:49.059 --> 00:08:53.509 key of C. which has no sharp or flat notes. To 00:08:53.509 --> 00:08:56.529 form chords, we look at the major scale of C, 00:08:56.610 --> 00:09:00.289 which is only seven notes, starting with C, D, 00:09:00.389 --> 00:09:03.750 E, and so on, until we circle back around to 00:09:03.750 --> 00:09:09.009 C again, now an octave higher. C, being the first 00:09:09.009 --> 00:09:11.429 note in the scale, means we can use it as the 00:09:11.429 --> 00:09:15.289 root note of the one chord, which is C major. 00:09:17.419 --> 00:09:21.179 Let's go a few notes up to E. This is the third 00:09:21.179 --> 00:09:24.059 note in the C major scale, which means it's a 00:09:24.059 --> 00:09:33.019 minor chord. Here's the melancholy E minor. In 00:09:33.019 --> 00:09:35.980 the opening verse, Bowie alternates between the 00:09:35.980 --> 00:09:39.779 C and E minor chords, which from the outset produces 00:09:39.779 --> 00:09:44.929 a feeling of drift or oscillation. As we move 00:09:44.929 --> 00:09:48.149 deeper into the verse, Bowie moves to A minor, 00:09:48.490 --> 00:09:51.809 but steps slightly outside the key and plays 00:09:51.809 --> 00:09:57.009 a D7 with F sharp as the bass note. That 7 chord 00:09:57.009 --> 00:10:00.269 imparts a certain bluesy or twangy sound here. 00:10:00.809 --> 00:10:03.750 The real outlier is the F sharp for the bass 00:10:03.750 --> 00:10:07.690 note. Remember, C has no sharps or flats. Here's 00:10:07.690 --> 00:10:12.909 what it sounds like. Bowie includes additional 00:10:12.909 --> 00:10:15.769 chords that aren't strictly diatonic, meaning 00:10:15.769 --> 00:10:19.330 they aren't part of the key of C. These are called 00:10:19.330 --> 00:10:22.090 borrowed chords, since we're taking them from 00:10:22.090 --> 00:10:25.809 adjacent keys, and some examples of this include 00:10:25.809 --> 00:10:30.070 moves from F major to the borrowed F minor during 00:10:30.070 --> 00:10:36.090 the verses. And then there's Bb, just a step 00:10:36.090 --> 00:10:39.350 lower than C, that introduces the Planet Earth 00:10:39.350 --> 00:10:44.629 is Blue line. And then there's this great transitional 00:10:44.629 --> 00:10:51.769 chord progression. That ends in two strums of 00:10:51.769 --> 00:10:56.289 A major, also a borrowed chord. The reason I'm 00:10:56.289 --> 00:10:58.669 harping on these borrowed chords is because they 00:10:58.669 --> 00:11:02.320 make the song feel emotionally unsettled. When 00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:05.840 you hear one, it feels familiar, but just slightly 00:11:05.840 --> 00:11:09.559 off. These borrowed chords aren't mistakes, they're 00:11:09.559 --> 00:11:12.720 used intentionally, like the music itself is 00:11:12.720 --> 00:11:16.019 stepping outside its comfort zone. And that mirrors 00:11:16.019 --> 00:11:19.600 what's happening in the story. Major Tom leaves 00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:22.600 the safety of Earth, and the unstable harmony 00:11:22.600 --> 00:11:26.019 follows him. There's another huge musical decision 00:11:26.019 --> 00:11:30.299 here. Major Tom doesn't go home in the end, and 00:11:30.299 --> 00:11:33.080 neither does the music. And what I mean by that 00:11:33.080 --> 00:11:36.539 is the song doesn't neatly resolve back to its 00:11:36.539 --> 00:11:40.879 tonal center of C major. Pop songs generally 00:11:40.879 --> 00:11:44.100 wrap up by returning to their one chord. For 00:11:44.100 --> 00:11:46.419 example, here's a simple progression that goes 00:11:46.419 --> 00:11:58.279 home to C major in the end. Space Oddity doesn't 00:11:58.279 --> 00:12:01.899 do that. In the ending freak -out section, it 00:12:01.899 --> 00:12:05.340 seems to leave the key of C altogether, drifting 00:12:05.340 --> 00:12:09.659 to D major and finally to E major. That leaves 00:12:09.659 --> 00:12:13.039 us feeling stranded as the music fades out, and 00:12:13.039 --> 00:12:16.220 that is a very intentional songwriting decision. 00:12:22.340 --> 00:12:26.259 I'd also like to take a moment to discuss instrumentation 00:12:26.259 --> 00:12:29.850 and production. Listen closely to these opening 00:12:29.850 --> 00:12:32.629 moments and see if you can hear a buzzing, organ 00:12:32.629 --> 00:12:48.610 -like drone under the guitar chords. That weird 00:12:48.610 --> 00:12:52.690 sound is Bowie playing a stylophone, a handheld 00:12:52.690 --> 00:12:55.970 synthesizer that was marketed to children. It 00:12:55.970 --> 00:12:58.629 came out just a year before this song, so it 00:12:58.629 --> 00:13:01.750 was a new futuristic instrument. It kind of sounds 00:13:01.750 --> 00:13:06.190 like a buzzing radio here. By sliding the instrument's 00:13:06.190 --> 00:13:09.190 stylus over the metal keyboard on top, you can 00:13:09.190 --> 00:13:14.389 produce eerie wah -wahs and squeals. Interestingly, 00:13:14.730 --> 00:13:17.250 Bowie was a big fan of the stylophone, and you 00:13:17.250 --> 00:13:19.889 can even buy a new iteration of it with a Bowie 00:13:19.889 --> 00:13:22.470 theme, including instructions for how to play 00:13:22.470 --> 00:13:26.120 several songs. Space Oddity is one of them, of 00:13:26.120 --> 00:13:29.659 course. As the song builds, another high -tech 00:13:29.659 --> 00:13:32.580 instrument of the time can be heard. Listen to 00:13:32.580 --> 00:13:40.659 the wall of symphonic strings here. That's not 00:13:40.659 --> 00:13:44.340 a string quartet. That's a Mellotron. An early 00:13:44.340 --> 00:13:47.019 keyboard instrument that doesn't generate sound 00:13:47.019 --> 00:13:50.820 like a synthesizer, but plays back actual recordings 00:13:50.820 --> 00:13:55.159 on strips of magnetic tape. Each key triggers 00:13:55.159 --> 00:13:58.919 a real violin or choir, but it sounds frozen 00:13:58.919 --> 00:14:02.960 in time and mechanical. And because it's tape 00:14:02.960 --> 00:14:06.340 -based, it's never perfectly stable. The pitch 00:14:06.340 --> 00:14:10.059 wobbles slightly, the timing isn't exact, and 00:14:10.059 --> 00:14:12.620 if you hold a note long enough, it just runs 00:14:12.620 --> 00:14:16.509 out. You've probably heard songs featuring the 00:14:16.509 --> 00:14:19.649 Melotron. It was famously used for the flute 00:14:19.649 --> 00:14:22.269 sounds at the beginning of Strawberry Fields 00:14:22.269 --> 00:14:32.509 Forever by The Beatles. A real example of a Melotron 00:14:32.509 --> 00:14:36.269 is expensive, but I have a couple excellent simulations 00:14:36.269 --> 00:14:39.139 of it here on my production machine. There's 00:14:39.139 --> 00:14:42.360 just something about these sounds recorded long 00:14:42.360 --> 00:14:46.500 ago that's so haunting. This particular emulation 00:14:46.500 --> 00:14:50.179 I'm playing is made by Arturia and features actual 00:14:50.179 --> 00:14:58.159 sounds recorded from a vintage Mellotron. In 00:14:58.159 --> 00:15:01.820 Space Oddity, this sound fits perfectly. It doesn't 00:15:01.820 --> 00:15:05.549 feel grounded or alive. It feels distant. fragile, 00:15:05.970 --> 00:15:08.649 like a signal drifting through space, slowly 00:15:08.649 --> 00:15:12.990 fading as it goes. The recording process also 00:15:12.990 --> 00:15:16.389 contributes to the song's ethereal quality. There's 00:15:16.389 --> 00:15:20.149 a generous use of reverb and echo, which pushes 00:15:20.149 --> 00:15:23.570 sound away, making them feel distant, like they're 00:15:23.570 --> 00:15:26.889 floating in a vast space. There's also subtle 00:15:26.889 --> 00:15:34.259 tremolo on the electric guitars. A gentle pulsing 00:15:34.259 --> 00:15:37.580 in the volume that keeps sustained sounds from 00:15:37.580 --> 00:15:40.940 ever feeling completely stable. And then there's 00:15:40.940 --> 00:15:44.379 the stereo mix. I already mentioned how the instruments 00:15:44.379 --> 00:15:47.580 are panned hard to the left or right, but here 00:15:47.580 --> 00:15:50.940 it creates something more psychological. Instead 00:15:50.940 --> 00:15:54.460 of a cohesive band, you hear elements separated, 00:15:55.059 --> 00:16:05.179 almost isolated from each other. Together, all 00:16:05.179 --> 00:16:08.620 these subtle choices are doing some real world 00:16:08.620 --> 00:16:13.720 building. So what actually happens to Major Tom? 00:16:14.139 --> 00:16:16.879 Well, no one really knows because Bowie keeps 00:16:16.879 --> 00:16:21.059 things deliberately ambiguous. This isn't a song 00:16:21.059 --> 00:16:24.519 so much about an astronaut as it is about isolation 00:16:24.519 --> 00:16:28.580 and emotional disconnect. Tom no longer feels 00:16:28.580 --> 00:16:32.279 connected to our world. Maybe it's a meditation 00:16:32.279 --> 00:16:36.000 on the price of fame itself, being adored by 00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:38.899 the planet, but feeling withdrawn and alone. 00:16:39.659 --> 00:16:42.159 The question that comes to mind is, did Major 00:16:42.159 --> 00:16:45.580 Tom willingly send himself adrift into the void? 00:16:46.019 --> 00:16:48.539 Because he seems at peace with the consequences. 00:16:49.120 --> 00:16:51.919 Another idea is that maybe he experienced some 00:16:51.919 --> 00:16:55.220 version of the overview effect. that feeling 00:16:55.220 --> 00:16:57.799 astronauts report after seeing the Earth from 00:16:57.799 --> 00:17:01.360 afar. It's the realization that Earth is a fragile 00:17:01.360 --> 00:17:05.039 place, that humanity's problems are small and 00:17:05.039 --> 00:17:08.359 insignificant, and the sobering realization that 00:17:08.359 --> 00:17:12.200 our world is a very, very small place in an expanding 00:17:12.200 --> 00:17:15.980 universe. We can find more clues to the song's 00:17:15.980 --> 00:17:19.200 meaning scattered throughout Bowie's five -decade 00:17:19.200 --> 00:17:25.059 -long career. The song Ashes to Ashes is considered 00:17:25.059 --> 00:17:28.380 something of a sequel to Space Oddity, largely 00:17:28.380 --> 00:17:31.799 owing to a line in its chorus which asserts, 00:17:31.819 --> 00:17:51.630 Major Tom is a junkie. Now, I personally don't 00:17:51.630 --> 00:17:54.609 like the idea of Major Tom as an addict, but 00:17:54.609 --> 00:17:58.029 this is what Bowie has given us. I prefer the 00:17:58.029 --> 00:18:01.250 song Star Man, which in my opinion sounds like 00:18:01.250 --> 00:18:18.500 the true sequel. Consider this interpretation. 00:18:18.960 --> 00:18:22.839 Major Tom disappears, and like Bowman in 2001, 00:18:23.339 --> 00:18:27.940 he returns in an evolved form, the Starman. However, 00:18:28.279 --> 00:18:32.200 Bowie never canonized that. Starman is on the 00:18:32.200 --> 00:18:35.119 Ziggy Stardust album, so it's related to the 00:18:35.119 --> 00:18:38.680 narrative arc of Ziggy Stardust, the rock musician 00:18:38.680 --> 00:18:42.940 from Mars. But again, there's the idea of isolation. 00:18:43.369 --> 00:18:46.670 The Starman would like to meet us, but he's afraid 00:18:46.670 --> 00:18:50.589 humanity isn't ready for him. Bowie loves to 00:18:50.589 --> 00:18:54.170 create these characters in his songs. Ziggy, 00:18:54.509 --> 00:18:57.890 Major Tom, Aladdin Sane, The Thin White Duke, 00:18:58.150 --> 00:19:02.410 and so on. Major Tom could be Bowie himself. 00:19:03.029 --> 00:19:06.710 Maybe Major Tom becoming a junkie is Bowie being 00:19:06.710 --> 00:19:09.430 self -referential about his own drug problems. 00:19:09.769 --> 00:19:12.109 However you want to frame it, it's interesting 00:19:12.109 --> 00:19:15.009 to see how many space references Bowie peppers 00:19:15.009 --> 00:19:18.849 throughout his work. Aliens are messengers, space 00:19:18.849 --> 00:19:35.819 is otherness, and contact is dangerous. And right 00:19:35.819 --> 00:19:38.980 up to the end, Bowie was singing about space. 00:19:39.480 --> 00:19:42.680 His final album, Black Star, was released in 00:19:42.680 --> 00:19:47.599 2016, just before his death. It's abstract, symbolic, 00:19:47.920 --> 00:19:51.579 almost ritualistic, but filled with cosmic imagery, 00:19:52.039 --> 00:19:55.940 stars, voids, death, transformation. It feels 00:19:55.940 --> 00:19:58.900 like crossing into something unknowable, and 00:19:58.900 --> 00:20:17.500 Bowie, near death, literally was. Space Oddity 00:20:17.500 --> 00:20:20.240 has been covered by a variety of artists through 00:20:20.240 --> 00:20:22.839 the years, including a note for note rendition 00:20:22.839 --> 00:20:25.740 by Def Leppard that even places the sound in 00:20:25.740 --> 00:20:37.480 the stereo field exactly like the original. However, 00:20:41.420 --> 00:20:44.099 one of my favorite renditions is by the flaming 00:20:44.099 --> 00:20:47.660 lips, who lean hard into the psychedelic aspect. 00:20:57.649 --> 00:21:01.269 But Space Oddity has achieved a cultural status 00:21:01.269 --> 00:21:05.670 that goes beyond rock music. It began life that 00:21:05.670 --> 00:21:10.490 way. In 1969, the BBC used it as the background 00:21:10.490 --> 00:21:13.450 music for its coverage of the Apollo 11 moon 00:21:13.450 --> 00:21:16.509 landing. It seems they didn't pay much attention 00:21:16.509 --> 00:21:18.910 to the lyrics. It was selected simply because 00:21:18.910 --> 00:21:32.339 it sounded spacey. Even Bowie was nervous about 00:21:32.339 --> 00:21:34.539 its use, fearing that if something went wrong 00:21:34.539 --> 00:21:37.339 on the mission, his song would be forever linked 00:21:37.339 --> 00:21:41.700 to a tragedy. Decades later, the song found its 00:21:41.700 --> 00:21:45.680 way into orbit. Astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded 00:21:45.680 --> 00:21:49.079 the first music video in space aboard the International 00:21:49.079 --> 00:21:52.579 Space Station. playing Space Oddity on a guitar 00:21:52.579 --> 00:21:56.319 and singing a modified version of Bowie's lyrics. 00:21:56.839 --> 00:22:25.269 This time, the astronaut makes it home. And now, 00:22:25.269 --> 00:22:28.730 more than 50 years after the last crewed missions 00:22:28.730 --> 00:22:32.309 to the moon, a new chapter has begun. As I'm 00:22:32.309 --> 00:22:35.109 recording this episode, four astronauts are on 00:22:35.109 --> 00:22:37.769 a journey deeper into space than any human has 00:22:37.769 --> 00:22:41.410 traveled before. The Artemis II mission will 00:22:41.410 --> 00:22:44.490 loop around the moon and return to Earth, splashing 00:22:44.490 --> 00:22:48.230 down in the Pacific Ocean. It's our first manned 00:22:48.230 --> 00:22:52.769 moonshot since 1972. I don't know if they're 00:22:52.769 --> 00:22:55.190 listening to Space Oddity, but they're following 00:22:55.190 --> 00:23:00.069 a path first taken by Apollo 11 in 1969, the 00:23:00.069 --> 00:23:04.430 same year the song was released. I suspect we'll 00:23:04.430 --> 00:23:07.589 still be listening to this song even 50 years 00:23:07.589 --> 00:23:11.410 from now. There's a certain irony in it, a song 00:23:11.410 --> 00:23:14.970 about drifting into the void of space. somehow 00:23:14.970 --> 00:23:40.940 reminds us what's at stake here on Earth. Well 00:23:40.940 --> 00:23:43.819 folks, I think I've finally purged this tune 00:23:43.819 --> 00:23:47.259 out of my own head, but I apologize if it's stuck 00:23:47.259 --> 00:23:50.200 in yours now. Thanks for taking this journey 00:23:50.200 --> 00:23:52.359 with me, and if you have any thoughts on this 00:23:52.359 --> 00:23:55.140 song or the episode, be sure to leave me some 00:23:55.140 --> 00:23:58.480 feedback over at the show website, StarTrails 00:23:58.480 --> 00:24:01.720 .Show. If you found this episode interesting, 00:24:01.920 --> 00:24:03.880 please share it with a friend who might enjoy 00:24:03.880 --> 00:24:06.680 it. The easiest way to do that is by sending 00:24:06.680 --> 00:24:09.660 folks to the website. And, if you'd like to support 00:24:09.660 --> 00:24:12.220 the show, use the link on the site to buy me 00:24:12.220 --> 00:24:15.700 a coffee. That really helps. Be sure to follow 00:24:15.700 --> 00:24:19.359 Star Trails on Blue Sky and YouTube. Links are 00:24:19.359 --> 00:24:21.960 in the show notes. Until we meet again beneath 00:24:21.960 --> 00:24:24.279 the stars, clear skies everyone.