Astronaut Musician Chris Hadfield Releases Video for 'Beyond the Terra'

Astronaut Chris Hadfield is something of a creative chameleon: after a long career traversing the cosmos, the latter portion of which he broadcasted on social media, Hadfield is officially retired, trading in space suits for Wrangler jeans and acoustic guitars.

Hadfield released an album called Space Sessions: Songs from a Tin Can last month, parts of which, unsurprisingly, were recorded onboard the International Space Station.

Today, Hadfield debuted his newest music video for the song “Beyond the Terra,” on YouTube: It’s a slow burner and a melancholy nod to the undisputed king of Dad Rock, Neil Young.

Everything about Chris Hadfield, re-acclimatized resident of Earth, shows that he’s a simple man, ready to live out the rest of his days far away from the throttle of rocket ships. He now prefers the serene pastures of the corn farm where he grew up, replete as it is with rusty automobiles, tall, uncut grass, and plentiful gravity.

“Beyond the Terra,” as one can imagine, is all about the mental experience of physically leaving planet earth and watching it from thousands of miles away. It’s also full of poetry.

Hadfield strums his guitar and sings, wistfully:

We all know about the sky above us, who’s seen the sky below?

Every movement feels a pure indulgence, but it’s more than I can know.

The video itself might be a little self-indulgent: pictures flash of baby astronaut Chris Hadfield taking baths, and later merge with images of him receiving honors as a student, then training as a young, mustachioed, mussy-haired man of the Seventies.

It also doesn’t look like Hadfield is hurting for bandmates either, as he’s got a full four-piece set up.

They look like nice fellas:

Instrumentally, the song rubs off the Americana of Harvest-era Neil Young.

There’s an underlying wave of slide guitar and the astronaut’s voice is pleasant and smooth, although he could do a little better to find his own.