CSA Astronaut
Born:
Chris Austin Hadfield August 29, 1959
Sarnia,
Ontario...Canada
Chris
Hadfield is a retired Canadian astronaut who was the first Canadian
to walk in space. An engineer and former Royal Canadian Air Force
fighter pilot, Hadfield has flown two space shuttle missions and
served as commander of the International Space Station.
Raised
on a corn farm in southern Ontario, he was inspired as a child when
he watched the Apollo 11 Moon landing on TV. He attended high school
in Oakville and Milton and earned his glider pilot licence as a
member of the Royal Canadian Air Force Cadets. He joined the
Canadian Armed Forces and earned an engineering degree at Royal
Military College. While in the military he learned to fly various
types of aircraft and eventually became a test pilot and flew several
experimental planes. As part of an exchange program with the United
States Navy and United States Air Force, he obtained a master's
degree in aviation systems at the University of Tennessee Space
Institute in 1992
where his thesis concerned high-angle attack aerodynamics of the
F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet. In total, Hadfield has flown over 70
different types of aircraft.
In
1992
he was accepted into the Canadian Space Agency. He first flew in
space aboard STS-74 in November 1995
as a mission specialist. During the mission he visited Russian space
station Mir. In April 2001
he flew again on STS-100 and visited the International Space Station
(ISS), where he walked in space and helped install the Canadarm2. In
December 2012
he flew for a third time aboard Soyuz TMA-07M and joined Expedition
34 on the ISS. He was a member of this expedition until March 2013
when he became the commander of the ISS as part of Expedition 35. He
was responsible for a crew of five astronauts and helped to run
dozens of scientific experiments dealing with the impact of low
gravity on human biology.
During
the mission, he also gained popularity by chronicling life aboard the
space station and taking pictures of the earth and posting them
through Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Tumblr to a large following of
people around the world. He was a guest on television news and talk
shows and gained popularity by playing his guitar in space. His
mission ended in May 2013
when he returned to earth.
Shortly after returning, he announced his retirement,
capping a 35-year career as a military pilot and astronaut.
Personal Life:
He is married to his high-school girlfriend Helene and they have
three adult children. Hadfield used to be a ski instructor at Glen
Eden Ski Area in Milton before becoming a test pilot.
He is a devoted fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs and wore a Leaf's
jersey under his spacesuit during his Soyuz TMA-07M reentry in May
2013. After the 2012 NHL Lockout ended, Chris tweeted a photo of
himself holding a Maple Leafs logo...and stated he was “ready to
cheer his team on from orbit.” He also sang the Canadian National
Anthem during the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens game on
18 January 2014.
NASA
Experience:
Hadfield was selected to become one of four new Canadian astronauts
from a field of 5,330 applicants in June 1992.
He was assigned by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to the NASA
Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas in August, where he addressed
technical and safety issues for Shuttle Operations
Development...contributed to the development of the glass shuttle
cockpit..and supported shuttle launches at the Kennedy Space Center
in Florida. In addition, Hadfield was NASA's Chief CAPCOM, the voice
of mission control to astronauts in orbit, for 25 space shuttle
missions. From 1996
to 2000
he represented CSA astronauts and coordinated their activities as
the Chief Astronaut for the CSA.
He
was the Director of Operations for NASA at the Yuri Gagarin
Cosmonauts Training Center (GCTC) in Star City, Russia from 2001
to 2003.
Some of his duties included coordination and direction of all
International Space Station crew activities in Russia...oversight of
training and crew support staff...as well as policy negotiation with
the Russian Space Program and other International Partners. He also
trained and became fully qualified to be a flight engineer cosmonaut
in the Soyuz TMA spacecraft and to perform spacewalks in the Russian
Orlan spacesuit.
He
was the Chief of Robotics for the NASA Astronaut Office at the
Johnson Space Center in Houston Texas from 2003
to 2006
and was Chief of International Space Station Operations from 2006
to 2008.
In
2008
and 2009,
he trained as a back-up to Robert Thirsk on the Expedition 21
mission. In May 2010
Hadfield served as the commander of the NEEMO 14 mission aboard the
Aquarius underwater laboratory, living and working underwater for
fourteen days. NASA announced in 2010
that Hadfield would become the first Canadian commander of the
International Space Station on 21 December. He remained on the
station for five months...departing on 13 May 2013.
In June, Hadfield announced his retirement from the Canadian Space
Agency, effective 3 July 2013.
He stated that after living primarily in the United States since the
1980's for his career, he would be moving back to Canada, “making
good on a promise I made my wife nearly 30 years ago ~ that yes,
eventually, we would be moving back to Canada.” He noted that he
plans to pursue private interests outside government there.
Social
Media:
During the time on the ISS, he received significant exposure and
ended his time by paying tribute to David Bowie with a rendition of
“Space Oddity”. Hadfield was described as “perhaps the most
social media savvy astronaut ever to leave Earth” by Forbes after
building a considerable audience on social media, including over
1,000,000 Twitter Followers as of June
2013...and
creating one of the top Reddit AmA threads of all time. He also has
a popular Tumblr Blog. Hadfield had enlisted the help of his
web-savvy son to manage his social media presence.
Post
Retirement:
On October 2013, the University of Waterloo announced that Hadfield
will join the university as a professor for a three-year-term
beginning in the Fall 2014. Hadfield's work is expected to
involve...instructing
and advising roles in aviation programs offered by the Faculty of the
Environment and Faculty of Science...as well as assisting in ongoing
research regarding the health of astronauts with the Faculty of
Applied Health Sciences.
In
2013, Hadfield published a memoir...An
Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth.
The book was a 'New York Times bestseller' and was also the
bestselling book in Canada on a Canadian subject. (His book contains
numerous Guides to Life and Quotes from his experiences which I shall
share with you, my readers on a separate blog entry.)
Special
Honours...and Citations
have been been awarded him...too numerous to list in this writing.
For
starters: an airport
in Sarnia was renamed...two
schools
in Milton are named after him...plus one
in Bradford, Ontario. Asteroid
14143 Hadfield
is also named after him. In 2005, 820 Milton Blue Thunder Squadron
was renamed “820
Chris Hadfield Squadron”
in honour of his being a cadet there.
In
2014, he was added to the Wall
of Honour at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston!
Compiled by Merle Baird-Kerr...March 28, 2015
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