Songfacts®:

• This dreamy, yearning number finds Britney Spears using cosmic imagery as she pines for a lost love. Though she keeps waiting for him, her man seems to be a world away, hence the phrase "Man on the Moon."
  
  Spears previously recorded another space-themed track when she opened Britney Jean with "Alien."
• The song was written by:
  
  American songwriter and producer Jason Evigan, who penned four songs on Demi Lovato's Demi album, including the hit single "Heart Attack." He also frequently co-writes with Nick Jonas and their collaborations include "Chains."
  
  Los Angeles singer-songwriter Ilsey Juber, whose other credits include Pitbull's "Fireball", Beyoncé's "All Nightt" and Major Lazer featuring Ellie Goulding's "Powerful."
  
  New Jersey singer-songwriter' Phoebe Ryan, who signed with Columbia Records in 2015. As a songwriter, she has written for artists such as Melanie Martinez ("Teddy Bear") and Bea Miller ("Young Blood").
  
  Pennsylvania songwriter and producer Sterling Fox who in 2008 co-founded a music production duo Robopop. Soon after, Sterling co-wrote and co-produced Gym Class Heroes' "Stereo Hearts". Sterling went on to co-produce Lana Del Rey's breakout single "Video Games" and co-penned Cash Cash's dance crossover hit "Take Me Home." Fox also contributed guitar and background vocals to this song.
  
  Multi-instrumentalist Marcus "Marc Lo" Lomax, who is a member of the Miami production and songwriting team The Monsters and The Strangerz. Their credits include Flo Rida's "Turn Around (5, 4, 3, 2, 1)" and Pitbull's "Fun."'
• At the end of the middle eight, Britney does a countdown to blast off in French. "Cinq (five) quatre (four) trois (three) deux (two) un (one).
• The song was written at an ASCAP songwriting camp in the South of France at the Château Marouatte. "It was me and four other writers in the room and we just started talking about this dream world where a girl is crying and looking at the moon," Phoebe Ryan recalled to Genius. "We all painted this story together."