An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth: Part 2

Now that Chris has taken the right steps to be on his way to achieving his goal of becoming an astronaut, he must put in the work. He has the recipe, now he must bake the astro-cookies.

He started by gaining the 1000 necessary hours of jet flying experience he would need to be eligible to be an astronaut. This took time and effort, but he knew there would be more ground to cover to reach his goal. He had to sacrifice time with his new wife to get closer to his goal, but she understood his passion and supported him. He spent months at a time away, just as his father had as an airline pilot. The only difference  was that Chris had an end-goal, while his father only loved to fly planes, and make money doing it.

Once he had enough experience, he took the appropriate measures when attempting to start his career as an astronaut. He knew he would be going up against thousands of other candidates, so he stood out. One scenario he describes in his book is in one of his final interviews. The board of people he had been interviewed always seemed to refer back to one man. They would say “Mac, you want to take this one?” Chris made a quick decision when he was asked a relatively difficult technical question by the board. He answered back sharply “Mac, you want to take this one?” Needless to say, everyone in the room cracked, and his quick thinking may have helped secure his position in the Canadian Space Agency.

Chris Hadfield flew to space 3 times; first in 1995, second in 2001, where he was the first Canadian to walk in space when he helped install the Canadarm2, and for the final time in 2012, where he was became the first Canadian commander of the International Space Station in march 2013. He has showed millions of Canadians that it does not take money or fame to reach your goals. It takes hard work, love, patience and an appreciation for the journey you take to get there.

The commander stated in his book that he loved his 5 month stay aboard the ISS, but he wished he could have been launching and reentering to earth in a spaceship more often. Of course, that is the most exciting part. His entire life, he wanted to reach his goal of going to space, yet here he is IN SPACE, and he says he wishes he could have made the journey to space more often. This in itself is a representation of his whole theory of why it is amazing to be an astronaut. Yes, you get to go to space, but most of your time is spent on the ground, making the journey to that one summit. In order to enjoy what you do, you need to enjoy the journey just as you enjoy where it will lead you.

Chris Hadfield: An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth

Although Mr. Plewis gave me a copy of James R. Hansen’s book The First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong, I decided to read a a book by a fellow Canadian; Chris Hadfield.

This book is  written and lived by the Canadian astronaut, born on August 29th, 1959 in Sarnia, Ontario. He was raised on a farm like his parents were, they knew such an upbringing would provide their kids with a sense of responsibility and strength. His father, Roger Hadfield, was a commercial airline pilot, and his mother, Eleanor, took care of Chris, his brother and his sisters. No doubt Chris’ interest in flying was sparked by the career of his father.

Chris first knew he wanted to be an astronaut at the age of nine, when he saw the Apollo 11 moon landing on TV. He set out to make every decision based off how it would help to him to accomplish his goal of one day soaring through our atmosphere to the beyond. There was only one problem; Canada did not have a space agency at the time, and NASA only accepted American citizens. He never let that dampen his spirits, though, and he went through his schooling trying to push himself to do his absolute best. He joined the Royal Canadian Air Cadets in his young teenage years, which showed him the ropes of respect, discipline and exposed him to the world of the sky. He earned his glider license at the age of 15, and at 16, he started flying powered airplanes.

Seen above: Chris Hadfield and his brother David in their Air Cadets uniforms.

After high school, Chris went to military college to major in mechanical engineering, and also because a direct path to becoming an astronaut was usually joining the military. If he didn’t become an astronaut, he would at least have an education. One major event that took place before his graduation was his marriage to his high school sweetheart, Helene.

This book lays out the recipe to become an astronaut.

First of all, a good upbringing is fairly important. One that brings out the best attributes for a human is needed. An astronaut needs to be responsible, to be able to resolve all problems during study, launch, orbit, reentry, and debriefing. They need to be able to call not only themselves out, but also others, politely and practically, for faults made during simulations. This is critical to avoid any seriously consequential mistakes made in space.

Next is the idea of committing your life to a single goal being deployed at a young age. The path to the deep, dark unknown is a lifelong one, and nobody is getting there without sacrifice. Chris knew his goal from childhood, and had inspiration and drive enough to get him to his goal in just over 26 years. His first contact with his inspiration being the Apollo 11 lunar landing on July 20th, 1969, and his first mission to space being on November 12th, 1996.

The third step is to gain experience in flight from a young age. Chris knew that to fly, the first step was to start training young. He joined the Air Cadets and started his journey to flying a real plane. He earned his licenses, and spent as much time as he could off the ground.

Fourthly is a good education, a fair bet to the start of any successful career. The commander had no way of knowing for sure if his dream would ever come true, but he still knew that he had to provide himself the best chance possible for success in life either way.

Finally, maybe the most important ingredient for any life recipe, is love. Chris attributes all of his success to the unconditional love from his wife. He was lucky to meet “the one” from a young age and marry her before his true challenges showed themselves. One particularly significant line from his book talks about how “During (their) first two years of wedded bliss, (Chris and his wife) were apart for almost 18 months.” This just shows how much dedication is needed to your significant other, and how much time will be spent apart from them on their pathway to space.

Not all these steps have been taken by every astronaut, but I can assure you that to reach your goals, an invisible pathway is laid out ahead of you, and your own recipe of decisions must be made to reach the desired finish line. Chris Hadfield, the most important Canadian astronaut, with the exception of Roberta Bondar, of course, made his way carefully and calculatedly down his pathway to the best of his abilities and to the lengths of what any human could.

 

Chris Hadfield’s Appmazing Social Media

Chris Hadfield took to twitter in 2010, according to his account @Cmdr_Hadfield. He likes to post photos and videos of interesting up and coming science and technology projects that he wants to shed more light on, increasing their popularity and funding.

For example, he is happy to share a picture of an air cadet squadron that was named after him. First of all, he is honoured to have anything named after him, and second of all, he was an air cadet. His entire career started when he joined the air cadets. He learned discipline, organization, and how to fly a plane.

He most recently replied to a tweet about some young scientists that created a science project to reduce environmental noise and sound using inverted waves. In their tweet, they thanked Chris for talking to them about their project and for saying they had made a real solution to a real problem. He wished them luck at the science competition that they were entered in. This involvement in the young scientific community shows his commitment to helping grow minds for future development of all categories of research and exploration.

I found a photo that he posted of himself and Paul Henderson, and I thought it was slightly ironic/representative of many people and Chris. He wrote that “Meeting your heroes is a thrill. Paul Henderson scored the winning goals in games 6, 7 & 8 during the 1972 Canada-USSR Summit Series. My school was shut down to watch. He signed my jersey 🙂 Thanks Paul!” He is very excited to meet Paul because he looked up to him as a kid and wanted to have success just like him. In addition, he has tremendously proud of his Canadian heritage and just as Paul Henderson was a beacon of Canadian success, Chris is a mirror of a great Canadian for younger ones to look up to. I’m sure many people would be excited and proud to get a picture with Chris Hadfield and would like to thank him for being their inspiration.

When a Soyuz rocket failed during launch as 4 side boosters were being jettisoned, Chris took to twitter to offer his input and to answer questions. He started off by making a tweet saying that the crew was OK, and that all systems designed to ensure that was the case when there is an abort mission worked perfectly. He knew that as an experienced astronaut with a decent following, people would be looking to him for answers. He followed this by using the periscope app to film a 14 minute video of him answering questions that people had asked him from his last post. In this video he covered everything from what went wrong to how this failure would effect future missions. He finished off the posting about this event by sharing a video of the failure mid-flight, and by sharing a video of the astronauts seeing their families for the first time after the abort. Chris was able to provide news and insight for those that were worried or interested, even though the flight took place in a different country and with a different space agency.

Overall, Chris Hadfield is an experienced and educated person that uses twitter and all social media not only for his personal life and interests, but also to cover all topics of his field and provide interesting and pertinent information for space-exploration enthusiasts.

Chris Hadfield’s Instaglamorous Social Media

Col. Chris Hadfield flew into the greatest enigma in history, space, in 2012. A little less great was his flight into Instagram in 2014. Social media connection from anyone to Chris Hadfield is a good thing. He certainly is active on the app, posting scientific and personal pictures and thoughts as well as documenting his life as an astronaut.

Chris posts a lot of pictures involving old astronauts and scientists, showing how he treasures the history of the science that he loves. Many of the astronauts that he looked up to are passed away, and so he must take the reins and be an astronaut that a new, younger generation can be inspired by. This also explains why he would want to get social media in the first place, as all the kids use it nowadays.

The retired astronaut also enjoys posting pictures from his own past. He must like to remember the good old days of when he knew he wanted to be an astronaut, just like every other little boy did after seeing the moon landing. He was serious, though, and he had it all planned out, how to get to space. One particular picture shows him as a small child with a typical metal pot on his head. The caption says “My 1st Halloween costume was… underwhelming.” The classic subconscious or not, childhood astronaut costume of the pot on the head. He knows it. The pot knows it. Its all about to go down, well, over the next 55 years that is. Astronaut Chris here he comes.

Much like Newton’s laws of motion, and how Newton acclaims them and his success to previous revolutionary scientists for creating the base equations and making the tough discoveries in order for newer minds to advance, I suspect that Mr. Hadfield and all other scientists feel the same about their predecessors.

Chris’ Instagram shows how he is deeply proud of his Canadian heritage. He posts content about the Toronto Maple Leafs, hockey, interesting facts and maps. He was the first Canadian commander of the International Space Station, and he might not have had the drive to become who he is if he had not been a great white norther. The fact that he says he wanted to be an astronaut even before there was any talk of a Canadian space agency shows that he wanted to be a ground breaker for Canada’s involvement in the exploration of space.

Chris Hadfield is clearly all about major throwbacks and thanking those that helped in any way to not only help him advance in his life and career, but those that helped anyone to have a better life. He uses his popularity power for good by shouting out those that deserve it and sharing his stories to help boost others to do better, to reach their dreams to infinity and beyond.