Space News: Asteroid To Whiz By Earth, Astronaut Chris Hadfield Records Song From The International Space Station

While space news has been mostly characterized with the asteroid that is projected to miss Earth by a small margin, there is something else

While news that an asteroid, projected to miss Earth by a record-setting narrow margin, has taken up a lot of realty in space headlines lately, there is another---less terrifying---event that deserves some attention as well. 

Astronaut and former military pilot Chris Hadfield teamed up with Barenaked Ladies singer Ed Robertson record a song from the International Space Station.

The song, "I.S.S. (Is Somebody Singing?), will become a part of Music Monday in May with the intent of raising awareness of both music education and the space program.

And although the space duet may seem like an odd couple, Robertson explains that Hadfield has some legitimate musical aptitude. 

"He's just a very high-functioning individual," Robertson said in a telephone interview as reported by The Canadian Press. "It's the only way I can describe him."

Hadfield and Robertson met when the Barenaked Ladies frontman was invited to visit NASA's Mission Control while on tour and passing through Houston, Texas more than 10 years ago.

The idea for the stellar collaboration started after Robertson requested some scientific information from his astronaut crony when writing a verse for one of his songs.

"Instead, he created a really poetic, laced-with-technical-info second verse," Robertson said. "I was like: 'Dude, you're the astronaut. I'm supposed to be the songwriter.' But it was an awesome surprise."

And that's not where Hadfield's seemingly infinite arsenal of skills ends.

Robertson also said that his performing artist co-pilot can also sing in a higher octave.

Hadfield recorded his guitar and vocal contributions to the song from the ISS and even incorporated some ambient sound from inside the satellite.

"It's noise as hell on the space station," Robertson said. "The background noise is huge. Just the ambience, the noise of the fans and generators and stuff on the station make a heck of a lot of noise."

Robertson, who is a licensed pilot, considers himself an amateur astronomer and says that he possesses a strong interest in all things related to space.

But music education is the reason the Barenaked Ladies singer was so gung-ho about this galactic project.

"I wouldn't be where I am without public school music education," Robertson said. "I think fundamentals are important, but I really think there needs to be four Rs: reading, writing, arithmetic and rhythm. You gotta use that other part of your brain. Studies show that kids who study music and art do better in math and science."

And Robertson also said that music and space have a lot in common.

"It's a natural, easy collaboration," he said. "I think science and music share a sense of wonder, and a sense of reaching and striving for something. And I think there's an awful lot of parallels between the two that could be further explained."

(SOURCE)