[1] His 1983 album, Error in the System, generated his only international hit single, "Major Tom (Coming Home)", a retelling of David Bowie's classic 1969 song "Space Oddity".

In the late '90s, Schilling formed a side project called Space Pilots,[1] which appeared on the first issue of the popular dance music compilation Dancemania series.

The song is based on and includes vocal samples from the German science-fiction TV show Raumpatrouille Orion.

Since 2018, Tessloff Verlag has published the children's book series Der kleine Major Tom in cooperation with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Bernd Flessner, as well as illustrations by Stefan Lohr.

Since 2020, Schilling has experienced something of a revival due to the success of his older songs, both the originals and new live versions and his newest album ‘Vis Viva’ on his YouTube channel.