Space Oddity (Larrivée P-01)

Canadian commander of the International Space Station (ISS) Chris Hadfield just returned to earth two days ago accompanied by the release of his music video of David Bowie's iconic "Space Oddity" recorded in space. It stars the Commander, an accomplished musician, floating around the Space Station with the first guitar in space, an acoustic parlor-size guitar, the Larivée P-01. The video also features superb footage of the Space Station and Earth from space. It's garnered 11.5 million views in three days. Don't miss this!



NASA psychologists sent the guitar up to the Space Station to help with the mental health of its astronauts. A high-quality parlor-size guitar was required as space is at a premium on the Space Station and it costs upward of $45,000 per kg to ship stuff up there. Two identical Larivée P-01 guitars were thus purchased from a local Guitar Center in Houston so comparisons between the instruments, one on earth and one in space, could be made. The Larrivée parlor guitar Commander Hadfield played has actually been on the International Space Station for over a decade now and has completed close to 60,000 orbits around earth!

The Larivée P-01 is a 24" scale length guitar with 12 frets to the body and a 13.25" lower bout and 7.75" waist. The depth is 4.5" with a 1 & 3/4" nut. This all-solid wood guitar features a select Spruce top, Mahogany back, sides, and neck, and Ebony fretboard and bridge.

The P-01 model has been out of production for over a decade according to John Larrivée, Jr., but he announced today that he is taking orders for a limited edition "ISS Commemorative Parlor" that is a P-01 replica. It will be interesting to see whether all the buzz around this space recording will revive interest in parlor-size guitars the way Eric Clapton was able to revive interest in 000-size models after his MTV Unplugged success.