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.
by Theras Wood The photographers’ cameras have long stopped flashing, and you’re all strapped in. Forget ‘space celebrity’, you’re the childhood hero of an entire generation. But none of that matters here in the bowels of the Russian Soyuz TMA spacecraft. Here, you’re just a woman or man headed to space, with scores of trainingRead more…
Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, along with U.S. astronaut Tom Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, took off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Dec. 19 and arrived two days later at the International Space Station for the start of a six-month visit.
Chris Hadfield was just a tyke when the Space Race began. But a month before he turned 10, he was watching along with millions of others when Neil Armstrong set the first human foot on the moon. Read more.
Astronaut Chris Hadfield is no stranger to Canadian milestones.
To name just a few:
Hadfield is the first Canadian astronaut to serve as a mission specialist aboard the now-retired U.S. Space Shuttle
He’s the first to operate the famed Canadarm in orbit, the first to walk in space
He’s also the first — and only — Canadian to ever board the Russian Space Station Mir.
Next year, Hadfield is scheduled to become the first Canadian to command the International Space Station.
But the recognition he really wants to see is not for himself, but for his country — he’d like to see Canada recognized for its place in space history. And what a place it is. Read more.
Tips for a successful mission to Mars: keep the crew in touch with family and friends, make sure the video games are good, and pack better food and drink. Read more.
When the U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton spoke at a recent celebration of aviator Amelia Earhart, she revealed something few people know — that she dreamed of becoming the first female astronaut in space.
A young Hilary even went so far as to send a letter to NASA stating her lofty ambitions:
. . . when I was about 13, I wrote to NASA and asked what I needed to do to try to be an astronaut. And of course, there weren’t any women astronauts, and NASA wrote me back and said there would not be any women astronauts. And I was just crestfallen. But then I realized I couldn’t see very well, and I wasn’t all that athletic, so probably – (laughter) — I wouldn’t be the first woman astronaut anyway. Read more.
In our latest YouTube video, Dr. Dave Williams — Canada’s only astronaut-aquanaut — talks about the potential for UrtheCast to change both the world and our perspective of it.
They wake up each morning just like the rest of us, but the astronauts aboard the International Space Station don’t get out of bed so much as unzip their upright sleeping bags.
If they want to watch the sunrise, they have 16 chances each day as the station orbits Earth at an altitude of about 220 miles, going 17,500 mph.
Those multiple sunrises and sunsets play havoc with the their sleep, so as a remedy, daily life is structured with a 6 a.m. GMT wake up, as described Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk during his six-month stay on the station in 2009. Read more.
