On 20 July 1969, like countless other
nine-year-old boys, Chris Hadfield watched on TV as Neil Armstrong descended to
the surface of the moon, and decided he wanted to be an astronaut. Unlike most,
the desire continued well beyond the school summer holidays.
He studied hard, joined the Air Cadets, took
a degree in mechanical engineering at military college, trained to fly fighter
planes and became a test pilot. All with an eye on his ultimate goal, made even
more unlikely by his Canadian nationality. However in 1991 the Canadian Space
Authority put out an advert, “Wanted: astronauts”, just two actually, but
Hadfield applied along with 5,329 other hopefuls.
He made it, and went on to make three space
flights: two on the space shuttle for short stays first at the Russian MIR
space station (1995) and at the incipient International Space Station (ISS) in
2001; and then in 2012 a final trip to spend five months in command of the ISS
from where he boosted the profile of the mission with his Space Oddity video
that went viral on the internet.
As well as giving a first-hand account of
space travel, Hadfield spreads a little homespun wisdom – applying lessons
learnt in the unforgiving environment of space to life on Earth. Much is
counter-intuitive: how to be a zero (not a hero); the power of negative
thinking (what is the next thing that can kill you); and valuing the small
personal wins as just much as the big public achievements.
Such humility comes through the writing. It
is no breast-beating self-promo, more a homage to teamwork and mutual support,
quite eye-opening in revealing what an astronaut does for the long months and
years when not in space. The chronology jumps around a bit in the middle
section as the different flights are used to illustrate his themes, but his
final trip to the ISS pulls the narrative back together to conclude an
interesting read.
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