Chris Hadfield

Chris Hadfield 1 Contents Introduction 3 1 The Astronaut 6 2 Aboard the ISS 12 3 Poetry, Pictures and Song 19 4 Launch Pad 5, May 5, 1961 25 5 Truth and Beauty 31 6 A Spaceman for a New Space Age 37 Notes and Sources 40 Playlist 43 Acknowledgements 44 (Photo: Chris Hadfield/NASA) Introduction The universe is wider than our views of it. —American author, poet, historian Henry David Thoreau The story of Chris Hadfield, this one at least, isn’t a story about science or astronomy, at least not in the precise, painstakingly calcu- lated manner in which scientists speak and work and regard their complex disciplines. It’s not even particularly a story about Chris Hadfield, because although the Canadian astronaut is at the heart of it and the reason for its telling, it’s not a profile of a man in the proper sense of the word. Rather, it is a story about space, our place in it, and how Chris Hadfield is helping us define that, collectively and individually, as a nation and beyond. Space and the universe has long been the pre- occupation, not solely of astronauts and scientists, but also of writ- ers, philosophers, poets, songwriters, filmmakers and painters. The universe is nearly 14 billion years old and its observable portion — 93 billion light years in diameter — defines wonder, beauty and the unknown, and the intersection of science and spiri- tuality. Exploring space, as every astronaut who has ever made the journey knows, is about the search for something bigger than us. That rarefied group of 530 men and women know genuinely what it feels like to be up there and look down here. It started with Russian Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space on April 12, 1961, and continues today on the International Space Station with a group of six men, including a Canadian who is doing more for space and NASA’s image than anyone since Neil Armstrong took one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. My mother insists — although it’s quite unlikely — that the only 3 Chris Hadfield time she really got impatient with me was on the afternoon of July 20, 1969. She and 500 million other people around the world were glued to the black-and-white images being broadcast on television of Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landing on the moon. I was 2. Buzz Aldrin in 1969 (Photo: Neil Armstrong/NASA) “No Mommy watch moon!” I apparently shrieked, time and again. She ignored me as best she could but nearly 44 years later she vividly remembers the event. We were touring the Art Gal- lery of Ontario on a Sunday in August when news came that Arm- strong had died, and we sat for a while and let its meaning sink in. I was 10 when I received a Tasco telescope for my birthday. It 4 Chris Hadfield came with a logbook and I filled it religiously, charting the phases of the moon and the stars I spotted on clear nights in our country backyard. But as I got older my interest faded. Until Chris Hadfield reignited it. Today I’m glued to his Twitter feed, mooning over every breathtaking image. Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, and so passionate a supporter of the space program that NASA named the first Shuttle Enterprise, once said, “Why are we now going into space? Well, why did we trouble to look past the next mountain? Our prime obligation to ourselves is to make the unknown known. We are on a journey to keep an appointment with whatever we are.” Chris Hadfield, just a regular kid from a southern Ontario farm family, knew from a young age he had that appointment. He kept it, and now he’s letting us tag along for the ride. 5 1 The Astronaut The contemplation of celestial things will make a man both speak and think more sublimely and magnificently when he descends to human affairs. —Roman philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero Chris Hadfield writes poetry in space, 140 characters at a time. He makes photographs worthy of National Geographic and coffee table books from his spot in the cupola, a dome at the bottom of the International Space Station with seven windows that permit a stunning view of Earth. It’s where he has the most fun with his Nikon D2 and D3 SLR cameras and lenses ranging from 400 mm to fish eye. He shares these photographs with humility and a dutiful non- chalance that doing so is his mission because he is a man lucky enough to be somewhere most humans, at one time or another, have imagined: circling our planet at 17,500 miles an hour, 92 times a day. And still, despite the fact he will do this for about 150 days and pass around Earth nearly 14,000 times, not a single orbit has been less interesting than the last, and each becomes more precious. In space, even the routine is fascinating. Hadfield is 53 and on his third — and longest — space flight. Born in Sarnia and raised in Milton, he grew up on a corn farm, the son of an Air Canada pilot and knew he wanted to fly from a young age. He is not up there just to keep us earthlings entertained, though it must feel like a full-time job. He is aboard the International Space Station for five months as part of a six-man team “conducting science” as he calls it — more than 130 experiments into medical and material research. 6 Chris Hadfield Hadfield says his sons helped acquaint him with social media — and his youngest, Evan, 27, helps spread his father’s Twitter posts across other sites such as Facebook and Tumblr, captivating even those with a mere passing interest in space. Among astronauts, Hadfield has an unprecedented social media presence fuelled by his passionate desire to engage the public. He participated in dropping the puck for the Toronto Maple Leafs home opener (he is an obsessed and loyal fan). He has recorded songs with pop musicians (Ed Robertson of the Barenaked Ladies), takes time out of his day to talk to songwriters (Sarah McLachlan) and posts videos about cooking in space to YouTube. Marc Garneau, the first Canadian in space aboard three shuttle missions — Challenger in 1984 and Endeavour in 1996 and 2000 (the latter two helping build the ISS) — has been glued to Had- field’s excellent adventure. “He has indeed made space cool again,” says Garneau, now campaigning for the federal Liberal Party leadership. Garneau has known Hadfield for 20 years. “He’s an excellent communicator and he’s really grabbing peo- ples’ attention and generating interest in space. “I wish tweeting had existed on my last flight. The pictures he’s sending… He’s been on television, he’s singing, he’s playing guitar. He’s showing a side of astronauts that people don’t usually think of. When people think of astronauts they think test pilots and en- gineers. He’s showing he can wax poetic about the experience of being in space, and he’s very eloquent.” Chris Hadfield’s father Roger took him on his first flights and instructed much of his early training. There are six pilots in the Hadfield family, and Chris was 13 when he joined the Royal Cana- dian Air Cadets on a scholarship for flight instruction. After graduating from high school and spending six months working as a ski instructor in Europe, Hadfield joined the Armed 7 Chris Hadfield Forces in 1978. He graduated from Royal Military College with a degree in mechanical engineering, and in 1983, finished at the top of his class in basic jet training. This earned him a spot at the U.S. air force Test Pilot School as an F-18 Hornet pilot. In 1988, he graduated again at the top of his class, an honour that allowed him to fly as a test pilot with the U.S. navy. In 1991, once again, Chris Hadfield was named their best pilot. The following year the Canadian Space Agency named the 32-year-old Air Force captain an astronaut. Hadfield’s first two shuttle flights — Atlantis in 1995 and En- deavour in 2001 — were to Russia’s Mir Space Station. He was rap- idly compiling a list of firsts — first Canadian to operate the Can- adarm in space; the only one to set foot on a Russian spacecraft; and the first to perform a spacewalk. “It was the most magnificent experience of my life,” he recalled recently. “Alone in a one-person spaceship (my suit), just holding on with my one hand, with the bottomless black universe on my left and the world pouring by in Technicolor on my right. I highly recommend it.” Ken Cameron, who flew with Hadfield aboard Atlantis, said the Canadian was in a unique position to be a diplomat in space and called his work “the foundation of the space station.” “He was good to have when we were dealing with the Russians,” the American astronaut says. “He’s a communicator. He under- stands, having dealt with a large culture to the south and a large culture to the other direction. Canada is right between Russia and the United States. On a map you don’t see it but from space. He was very effective as a communicator and a team builder, which was our job, getting comfortable with the Russians and helping them get comfortable with us.” — 8 Chris Hadfield In mid-March Hadfield will become the first Canadian to serve as a commander of the International Space Station.

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