THE CARTOON
In this cartoon by Mac from the Daily Mail, we see two astronauts undertaking a spacewalk outside the International Space Station in orbit around Earth. A voice from ground control asks 'Major Tim' (one of the astronauts, we assume) to investigate the sudden appearance of a 'huge unidentified star'.
EXPLANATION
The cartoon relates to the death of David Bowie. The opening lyric of one of Bowie's most famous songs, Space Oddity, is "Ground control to Major Tom" (Major Tom being a fictional astronaut). Mac changes "Tom" to "Tim" as a nod to Major Tim Peake, Britain's first ESA astronaut, who is currently aboard the ISS. The 'huge unidentified star' is, of course, Bowie.
TRIVIA NOTE
Peake is set to participate in the first spacewalk outside the ISS by a British astronaut on 15 January 2016. The purpose of the spacewalk will be to replace a faulty sequential shunt unit on the station's solar arrays.
ALSO SEE
• Cartoon: Mourning David Bowie (Chappatte in The New York Times)
• Cartoon: Remembering David Bowie (The New Yorker)
• David Bowie cartoon collection (Cagle Post)
• How cartoonists around the world reacted to Bowie's death (i100)
