The story of Major Tom bears an uncanny resemblance to a short and rather amateurish TV drama concerning an space flyer whose craft slips out of its planned trajectory and cannot be retrieved. The play was totally set in the capsule, although it was a sort of roomy cupboard with a bar stool, and the astronaut was the only actor in vision. It was transmitted bout six months before the record came out.
I think the point was to show the stages of denial, rage, and resignation to an inevitable fate.