David Bowie's estate has prepped a special reissue of the late legend's breakthrough single "Space Oddity" in honor of its 50th anniversary.

The record will be issued as part of a box set on July 12, one day after the single's official golden anniversary.

The set is available at Bowie's website, and includes two 7" singles, one featuring the original mono mixes of "Space Oddity" and its B-side, "Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud," and the other featuring 2019 mixes of the same tracks by Bowie's longtime engineer and co-producer Tony Visconti.

The box also includes a two-sided poster with the single's original press advertisement and a photo of Bowie taken during the Save Rave 69 show four months after the song's release, an information card and a print with a different picture from the cover art's photo shoot.

The new set is part of a line of merchandise commemorating "Space Oddity," which became Bowie's breakthrough hit when released on July 11, 1969, a little more than a week before Apollo XI became the first manned mission to land on the Moon.

Inspired by Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, the song captured the zeitgeist and rose to No. 5 in the U.K. It originally failed to chart in the U.S., but a 1973 reissue went to No. 15, Bowie's best showing on the Billboard Hot 100 at the time.

Bowie revisited "Space Oddity"'s protagonist, Major Tom, on "Ashes to Ashes," a single from 1980's Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps), and the again in 1995 with a Pet Shop Boys remix of "Hallo Spaceboy." Peter Schilling had the highest-charting reference to the character with his 1983 song "Major Tom (Coming Home)," which reached No. 14.

 

 

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