Chris Hadfield
Chris Hadfield
Chris Austin Hadfield OC OOnt MSC CDis 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...
NationalityCanadian
ProfessionAstronaut
Date of Birth29 August 1959
CitySarnia, Canada
CountryCanada
birthright born came crap fixing normal picking planet power shed somehow super treated view weird
I don't want to be treated like I came from another planet or something or was somehow born with some weird birthright or super power. I don't view myself that way. I am a normal guy, picking up the crap from the dog and scraping the BBQ and having a beer and fixing the shed out back.
best build canada capability extension looked nasa needed order outside plus promising
When we needed a long extension on the Canadarm 1 in order to be able to inspect the outside plus sensors on the end, NASA . . . looked through the whole world for who had the best capability and the most promising ability to build something and Canada won.
buy early explain helps illuminate listen local music
What I like to do when I get to a new place is buy local music early on and listen to it while we're driving around. I think it helps explain and illuminate the culture of where you are if local music is playing.
elegant grew hardware itself mechanical practical proves
I'm a mechanical engineer, and I grew up on a farm, so I like practical hardware - somebody's elegant solution that proves itself over the long term.
If only there was someone out here with long arms,
almost arm baton passing reach shuttle
I'll reach up with the shuttle arm, almost like passing a baton from the new arm to the old arm,
boy excited news nine time year
In the late '60s, I was seven, eight, nine years old, and what was going on in the news at that time that really excited a seven, eight, nine year old boy was the Space Race.
airplane flying good learned pulling quickly time woke
I once made myself black out by pulling G too quickly while flying an F-18. Being unconscious in a single-seat airplane is not good. Fortunately, I woke up in time. I learned how to better plug-in my anti-G suit.
across banging fly hear heat pieces ride russian shield slowly sparks
In the Soyuz, the little Russian capsule, you can actually hear the banging of the big shield, the big heat shield on the bottom, as it slowly erodes away from the heat and pieces of it fly off like sparks across your window, and it's an interesting thing to ride through, you know.
pilots next astronaut
"What's the next thing that's going to kill me?" is a mantra for pilots and astronauts.
winning thinking able
I'm not a wealthy person and I don't think that I would be able to prioritize that much money to go for a ride to a place that I have already lived. But if the price comes down or I win a lottery or something, why not?
giving irrational-fear cliffs
When I stand on the edge of a cliff or right at the edge of a building or something, it's one of the few things that gives me kind of a deep, overwhelming, irrational fear where it affects my physiology.
crazy fall mean
It's good to have a fear of heights. I mean, it's kind of crazy not to because if you just lean out a little bit and there's a gust of wind or somebody bumps you or something and you fall, you're splat.
real pride keys
So without that Canadian invention we were grounded. And so that was a really important and key part of the mission and Canadians should take real pride in it.