The most powerful telescope ever launched into space, the James Webb Space Telescope - launched December 2021 and which entered orbit in January 2022 – finally becomes 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 Tuesday, 12 July.

With a well-renowned passion for Astronomy, having earned a PhD in astrophysics from Imperial College, London, in 2007 and a “science team collaborator” with NASA’s New Horizons Pluto mission – Queen guitarist Brian May notably launched his track "New Horizons" from NASA headquarters on New Year’s Day 2019 to mark the flyby of the distant object Ultima Thule –  May now teams with fellow space science enthusiast, 10cc frontman Graham Gouldman to recognize this discovery moment with new music.

Written by Gouldman, he and May have created a special new track to mark the historic JWST images reveal.  “Floating In Heaven”, written and performed by Gouldman and featuring May on guitar and vocals, has a special digital & streaming release today to coincide with the highly anticipated release of first pictures brought to earth by the JWST.

The track comes with a specially created video, which can be viewed below.

Talking of his fascination with space exploration May 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."

May’s most widely recognised space-related song of course dates back to his earliest days with Queen: his song, "39,", 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 Queen’s 1975 A Night At The Opera album. May continues to routinely perform the song in the band’s live concerts.