Brian May collabs with Graham Gouldman on new space-inspired song Floating In Heaven

Brian May has teamed up with 10cc’s Graham Gouldman on a new space-inspired song to commemorate the James Webb Space Telescope’s first images.

• READ MORE: The Doors’ Robby Krieger wishes Jim Morrison was still around: “You see the Stones still playing, I get really jealous”

Titled Floating in Heaven, the song marks the historic first images to be delivered from the world’s most powerful space telescope. Launched in December 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope entered orbit in January 2022 and finally became fully operational this week.

Intended to succeed Hubble as NASA’s flagship mission in astrophysics, the NASA space agency has scheduled the first official JWST science images release event for today (12 July). The track’s release was timed to coincide with the reveal of the first images.

Written and performed by Gouldman, and featuring May on guitar and vocals, Floating in Heaven features some pretty space-y lyrics such as the lines “I’ve never seen the moon so white / I’ve never seen the sun so bright / I’m floating in heaven”.

The song is now available to stream on various digital platforms. A music video has also been released to celebrate the momentous reveal.

An avid lover of all things space, May’s most widely recognised space-related song dates back to his earliest days with Queen. The song 39, which tells the story of a group of space explorers who return home to find that, during their one year of travel, a century had passed on Earth, first appeared on the band’s 1975 album A Night At The Opera. May continues to routinely perform the song at Queen’s live concerts.

Speaking about his fascination with space, May, who has a PhD in astrophysics, says: “There is nothing more exciting in a world of exploration than going to a place about which you know nothing. The sky’s the limit for what we could find out.”