The song could have possible meanings depending on how you look at it. Judging from the music video (if the music video on YouTube is actually the real one!) it can be taken literally, that Major Tom is stranded in space. The conclusion follows him making the decision to propel his damaged spacecraft back to Earth so he can die on his own terms, where he calls home.
Major Tom is a man who dreamed of seeing the stars. Though others are skeptical of him, he achieves his goal and becomes an astronaut. When something goes wrong on a routine mission, everyone thinks that he is dead when in reality his rockets have failed and communications have been severed. It's implied that Major Tom can still hear the ground crew, by the lyrics "they don't realize he's still alive.""They don't understand, but Major Tom sees, now the light commands" possibly alludes to the damaged rockets having come back online (signified by a light). Nobody else realizes that Major Tom is still alive on board the ship and capable of manning it to a limited degree. Major Tom decides that he would rather go "home" instead of slowly suffocating out in space, so he sets the rockets to propel him back into the atmosphere. The music video ends with the ship "coming home," in a ball of flame as it falls back through the atmosphere.
If that's the literal interpretation it's both morbid but kinda beautiful at the same time. I guess it's about defiance in even the darkest of situations
The song could have possible meanings depending on how you look at it. Judging from the music video (if the music video on YouTube is actually the real one!) it can be taken literally, that Major Tom is stranded in space. The conclusion follows him making the decision to propel his damaged spacecraft back to Earth so he can die on his own terms, where he calls home.
Major Tom is a man who dreamed of seeing the stars. Though others are skeptical of him, he achieves his goal and becomes an astronaut. When something goes wrong on a routine mission, everyone thinks that he is dead when in reality his rockets have failed and communications have been severed. It's implied that Major Tom can still hear the ground crew, by the lyrics "they don't realize he's still alive.""They don't understand, but Major Tom sees, now the light commands" possibly alludes to the damaged rockets having come back online (signified by a light). Nobody else realizes that Major Tom is still alive on board the ship and capable of manning it to a limited degree. Major Tom decides that he would rather go "home" instead of slowly suffocating out in space, so he sets the rockets to propel him back into the atmosphere. The music video ends with the ship "coming home," in a ball of flame as it falls back through the atmosphere. If that's the literal interpretation it's both morbid but kinda beautiful at the same time. I guess it's about defiance in even the darkest of situations