From the moment a child first recognizes his or her reflection, their sense of self awareness is forever changed. So too was humanity’s when we got our first look at the planet from space. It was a life-changing event on a species-wide scale — our microcosm suddenly became extremely macro and we were able to finally see ourselves against the grander backdrop of the universe.
Last Friday May 10th marked the anniversary of the first colour pictures taken of Earth from space. Captured by the Apollo 10 crew, it marked the first time we were able to bring back images of our blue marble, in full colour.
As the first Canadian commander of the International Space Station, Chris Hadfield had many important duties aboard the giant Earth-orbiting laboratory, not the least of which was overseeing the safety of the crew.
But as Hadfield’s time aboard the ISS comes to a close, a review of his tenure reveals what has been obvious to everyone following his adventures on Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook, and to every student who participated in a video chat or amateur radio conversation with him:
Chris Hadfield has made the unreachable corners of outer space personal, fun, and incredibly interesting.
Space and the arts are no strangers, having been pretty friendly over the years.
It’s not, for instance, uncommon for astronauts to know how to wield a guitar, with the most recent renaissance man aboard the ISS being Canada’s Earth-space ambassador, Commander Chris Hadfield.
Now, after a series of (gone-viral) live chats with celebs and students, and clever info segments about life’s minutiae aboard the Station, Hadfield will be holding his last live broadcast with Earth on Monday, May 6.
For almost a year now, California’s SpaceX has seemed a little like the rabbit of the U.S. commercial space race – fast, sleek, glamorous, and running circles around its closest competitor, Orbital Sciences Corp. of Virginia.
Bring your dreams, your drink (the caffeinated kind, of course) and your skills to any one of 75 locations in 41 countries around this world – or the whole Blue Marble if you choose to join virtually – to the second annual International Space Apps Challenge, April 20-21.
For 48 hours, some of the most active minds on the planet will come together to crowdsource fun and maybe even life-sustaining solutions to some of the most complex space exploration problems: Read more.
Vancouver, BC, March 26th, 2013 –- Wade Larson, co-founder of hotly-tipped Canadian Space tech startup UrtheCast, has been chosen as one of the ‘world’s most remarkable voices’ by being asked to speak at the prestigious TEDxWaterloo ‘chasingHOME’ event in Kitchener, Ontario, on March 27th.
On March 13, 2013, Canadian Space Agency (CSA) Astronaut Chris Hadfield became the first Canadian commander of the International Space Station. It was an important day for Canada, for the CSA, and for the 53-year old space veteran who’s been training for this moment since he was 14 years old.
“The ISS is an orbiting research vessel of unprecedented capability, and Canada is in the thick of it,” explained Hadfield in his official statement as commander, “… the 130 experiments currently on the ISS are pushing back the edge of what is possible.”
As celestial visitors go, asteroid 2012 DA-14 will rank among the better guests.
We’ve known it’s been coming for almost a year, and it’s only sticking around for just over a day. It’s pretty big, and there may be some crowding of Earth’s personal space, but it promised not to make a mess. And it has delivered on its projected message.
It was the closest asteroid flyby in our recorded history.
But as close as it was, Asteroid DA-14 didn’t plummet towards Earth today. People didn’t parish in its wake. Economic centres didn’t crumble. Ecosystems weren’t devastated.
Coincidentally, a meteor did burn-up over, and eventually hit, Russia today. And it could have just as easily hit anywhere else on the world — a densely-populated, major economic centre, for instance.
While the two phenomena are not related, what these close encounters have done is reignite discussion around the need for a plan to deal with asteroids and meteors, should one ever become a threat to Earth.
