From jet black, to a view of the International Space Station, there’s no stage, no dramatic lighting.
The backdrop is the blue coloured jewel of the planet we call home.
Inside. a man floats weightlessly in the cramped module lit only by the pale, diffuse glow of instrument panels and the vast curve of Earth drifting silently outside the window.
He’s cradling an acoustic guitar and is humming and then begins to sing.
From the opening lines, his delivery is calm and grounded, stripped of the theatrical tension that David Bowie gave the original.
“Ground control to Major Tom…”
Where Bowie’s version feels increasingly unmoored and existentially lost,
This version carries the steady composure of someone who is, quite literally, living the experience.
The lyrics are subtly but significantly altered over the next five minutes as he sings while orbiting our planet.
The video, and the man, have become so famous you probably already know who I am talking about.
I’m Craig Baird and this is Canadian History Ehx Biography.
Today, we are heading into orbit as we speak to Canada’s most famous astronaut,
This is… Chris Hadfield!
1959 was an important year for humanity’s exploration of the cosmos. On Jan. 4, of that year, Luna 1 zoomed over the moon in a flyby from a height of 6,000 kilometres.
Nine months later on Sept. 14, Luna 2 became the first spacecraft to land on the moon when it touched down in Mare Imbrium, also known as the “sea of showers,”.
It is the name of a huge crater on the moon caused by a meteor hitting its surface some 3.8 billion years ago.
Three weeks after Luna 2 came Luna 3’s first circumlunar flight and returned with the first images of the far side of the moon.
Meanwhile, on Earth Chris Hadfield was just a few weeks old having been born in Sarnia, Ontario on Aug. 29.
His father, Roger, was a pilot with Air Canada, and had his own aerobatic plane.
So flying was the family business and would continue to be as
Chris, along with his brothers David and Philip, all attended air cadets.
David and Philip followed in their father’s footsteps and became airline pilots, but Chris had set his sights a little further away.
He wanted to go to space.
By now the Soviet Union and the United States were both locked into the Space Race as they competed to put a human on the surface of the Moon.
Even Canada got involved with Alouette 1, the first satellite constructed by a country other than the Soviets or Americans.
It launched in 1962 on a 10-year mission to study the ionosphere.
It is still up there by the way and will be for another 900 years or so.
Chris Hadfield had just turned seven years old when his interest in space reached a whole new level. Because seeing the space race on the news was one thing, but now man was going boldly where no one had gone before.
On September 8, 1966, the starship Enterprise departed on its maiden voyage to explore strange new worlds as it sought out new life and new civilizations.
At the helm was Captain James T. Kirk played by Canadian William Shatner.
The ship’s crew included First Officer and Science Officer Spock played by Leonard Nimoy, Chief Medical Officer Leonard H. “Bones” McCoy played by DeForest Kelley. Engineer. Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, played by fellow Canadian James Doohan and Communication Officer Nyota Uhura portrayed by Nichelle Nichols.
The revolutionary science fiction TV series created by Gene Roddenberry showed a future where humans had overcome their differences and now explored the galaxy in the name of science rather than conquest.
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Chris had been one of the over 500 million people who watched as Armstrong took the first step, declaring it a “giant leap for mankind” on July 20, 1969, as NASA’s Apollo 11 landed on the moon.
American’s Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed the Eagle module in the Sea of Tranquility while Michael Collins orbited above then returned back to Earth with 47 pounds of lunar material.
The space race was fought by the Soviets and the Americans. There were no Canadian astronauts and there wouldn’t be for another 15 years.
But that didn’t stop Chris from dreaming.
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After graduating high school, Chris joined the Canadian Armed Forces.
His career plan would be made up of short-term decisions towards a long-term goal…. space.
Which meant after two years at the Royal Roads Military College located in the very scenic Hatley Park, near Victoria, British Columbia, he traveled across the country to the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario.
During this time Chris became the top graduate from Basic Jet Training at CFB Moose Jaw in Saskatchewan.
He also attended the 410 Tactical Fighter Operational Training Squadron at CFB Cold Lake in Alberta.
Like I said earlier, flying was in his blood and by 1982 he graduated from the Royal Military College with a degree in mechanical engineering.
By then the space industry was going through a shift.
On Dec. 5, 1983, the National Research Council of Canada announced the first group of Canadian astronauts which were chosen out of 4,300 applicants.
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Less than a year later, on Oct. 5, 1984, Marc Garneau became the first Canadian in space.
He was a payload specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger that flew in low Earth orbit for a week.
Chris watched from Earth and was inspired.
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He continued to build towards his goal by piloting CF-18s with the Canadian Forces. The multi-role fighter jets are used for air defence as part of the North American Aerospace Defense Command or NORAD.
Then he trained with the United States Air Force Flight School and graduated in 1988.
He then became a Canadian exchange officer at the US Naval Air Test Center in Maryland where he tested 70 planes among them were the F/A-18 Hornet and the LTV A-7 Corsair II.
Being part of the program brought him closer to space, because it was and continues to be one of the main training grounds for astronauts.
To date, 90 of the 370 NASA astronauts have graduated from the center.
And by 1992 he was one step closer to the cosmos.
That year he received a Master of Science in aviation systems from the University of Tennessee Space Institute.
In June, Chris became one the four astronauts selected from the 5,330 applicants to join the Canadian Space Agency astronaut program.
The process can take over 13 months, involving intense interviews, psychological testing, and medical evaluations.
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Chris Hadfield had managed to achieve something major.
He had been selected along with Dafydd Williams, Robert Stewart and Julie Payette and was assigned to the NASA Johnson Space Center.
There he would be joining the man he looked up to, Marc Garneau to train as a mission specialist.
To be a mission specialist, an astronaut must go through extensive training and have an incredibly broad range of skills because they are responsible for operating on-board systems, performing spacewalks, maintaining equipment and conducting scientific experiments.
Chris’ dream that had been almost thirty years in the making became reality on Nov. 12, 1995.
He was aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis as it lifted off from Kennedy Space Center launch pad 39A on the fourth mission of the US/Russian Shuttle–Mir program, and the second docking of the Space Shuttle with Mir.
The shuttle would be delivering a pair of solar arrays along with the Russian-built Mir Docking Module to allow docking with the station by the space shuttle without moving Mir’s Kristall module.
Approximately three hours into the flight, Commander Ken Cameron and Pilot Jim Halsell fired the orbiter’s reaction control thrusters in the first of a series of rendezvous burns that refined Atlantis’s path towards Mir.
Shortly after the burn, Chris who the first Canadian mission specialist, activated the Russian-built docking module, housed in the shuttle’s payload bay, ready for the docking of the module with Atlantis’s Orbiter Docking System on flight day 2.
Chris would also be the primary Canadarm operator.
The Canadarm was a remote-controlled mechanical arm that was incredibly versatile and useful on Space Shuttle missions.
It could deploy and capture satellites, position astronauts, move cargo and much more.
It is such a marvel of Canadian engineering that it was even the $5 banknote.
First tested in orbit in 1981 on the Space Shuttle Columbia, it flew on 90 missions aboard five Space Shuttles.
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On Nov 14, the third day of the mission, Chris used the Canadarm to hoist the docking 4,100-kilogram module out of the aft portion of the payload bay, rotated it to a vertical position, and moved it to within five inches of the Orbiter Docking System.
By 1:17 am CST, as Atlantis flew over eastern Europe on its 30th orbit it locked on to Mir and created an airtight tunnel that allowed the shuttle crew to go aboard the next day.
During the three days of combined Shuttle-Mir operations, Atlantis’s crew transferred various items from the shuttle to the space station, and then on Nov. 18 Atlantis undocked from Mir.
Atlantis finally touched down on Runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Nov 20,1995.
By the time Chris was safely back on Earth he was already in the history books because not only was he the first Canadian mission specialist, and the first Canadian to operate the Canadarm, he was also the first and ONLY Canadian to ever go aboard Mir.
And he wasn’t done making history.
Upon his return Chris was assigned to be the Capsule Communicator for mission STS-77, which included Marc Garneau, as a mission specialist.
Better known as CAPCOM, the role is responsible for bridging communication between Mission Control in Houston and astronauts in space.
While numerous astronauts rotate through this role for different shifts and missions, Chris was in the role for 25 missions with NASA and had been the connection to his fellow Canadian cohorts Julie Payette who went to space first in 1999 on the Space Shuttle Discovery from May 27 to June 6, 1999, as part of the crew of STS-96.
He had also been there for Dafydd Williams’ first spaceflight, STS-90 in 1998, aboard Space Shuttle Columbia.
And then he got the call he had been hoping for.
He would be going to space again.
On April 19, 2001, at 18:40:42 UTC Chris Hadfield launched into space from John F. Kennedy Space Center aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour
He was once again a Mission Specialist on his way to the International Space Station (ISS) to deliver theCanadarm2.
That mission led to another first.
On April 22 Chris performed his first space walk.
He had spent four years training for that moment in underwater simulators countless times.
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He knew everything he needed to do, but the experience itself was something he had not prepared for.
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In total, he spent 14 hours, 50 minutes on two spacewalks, and orbited the Earth 10 times but he experienced severe eye irritation due to the anti-fog solution used to polish his spacesuit visor, temporarily blinding him and forcing him to vent oxygen into space.
Endeavour undocked from the Station at 1734 GMT on April 29 to begin its trip home.
The weather in Florida was bad for the planned May 1 landing time, so Endeavour landed in California at 1610:42 GMT.
After his return home, Chris was posted to Star City, Russia where he became the director of operations for NASA at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, named after the first human in space.
He was involved in coordinating all the ISS crew activities in Russia and overseeing training of crew and support staff.
During his time in Russia, Chris became qualified as a flight engineer on the Soyuz spacecraft.
The Russian spacecraft was designed in the 1960s and holds the record for the longest-operational human spaceflight program.
It carries crew/supplies to the International Space Station (ISS).
Once Chris became a qualified flight engineer, he was also certified to use the Russian spacesuit during spacewalks.
After two years in Russia, Chris returned to North America in 2003 to serve as the chief of robotics at the NASA Astronaut Office at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston.
Then the news came.
In September 2010, NASA announced that Chris would be returning to space.
He would be part of Expedition 35, and this is when Chris would make history again.
The countdown operations started early on Dec 19, 2012, about eight hours before the planned launch time.
The crew which included Chris as Flight Engineer 1 enjoyed their final breakfast, then departed the cosmonaut hotel to head to Site 254.
The crew arrived at the launch site about two hours and 33 minutes before lift-off at 12:12:35 UTC on the Soyuz FG rocket carrying Soyuz TMA-07M.
The launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome happened in freezing weather conditions.
They docked at the Space Station at 14:09 UTC while the two were flying over northern Kazakhstan on Dec. 21.
This would be home for Chris for the next five months and during that time he wanted to inspire others like the Apollo Moon Landings inspired him.
This included speaking to hundreds of schools and using any media available to make space more accessible to people on Earth.
While the Internet was in its infancy during his first two spaceflights, everything had changed by 2013.
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Chris believed that sharing the experience of being in space was an important part of an astronaut’s job because it helped to get people interested in science and space.
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But here’s the thing with Chris…. Science isn’t his only passion as the world would soon find out.
Aboard the ISS was a Larrivee Parlor guitar, which had been brought up on a previous flight.
Chris would put it to good use.
He had arrived just four days before the Christmas holiday, so on Dec 23 he recorded the first original song in space.
It’s called Jewel in the Night and it’s a folk tune about space exploration, the Christmas season and goodwill to people on and off the Earth.
He then posted it online on Christmas Eve via YouTube and Twitter.
And he wasn’t done with showcasing his musical talents.
On Feb 12, 2013, Chris joined Ed Roberson and The Barenaked Ladies along with the Wexford Gleeks in the first space-to-earth musical collaboration.
The song, “I.S.S. (Is Somebody Singing) was commissioned by CBC Music and The Coalition for Music Education with the Canadian Space Agency to celebrate music education in schools across Canada.
To date, the video has close to 4 million views.
It would pale in comparison to what he would do next.
On March 13, 2013, Chris became the first Canadian commander of the International Space Station, and he received a personal message of congratulations from Queen Elizabeth II who said,
“I am pleased to transmit my personal best wishes, and those of all Canadians, to Colonel Christopher Hadfield as he takes command of the International Space Station.”
He also became a social media darling.
He created one of the top Reddit ask me anything (AMA) threads of all time on February 17, 2013 and with the help of his son Evan made videos explaining how astronauts sleep on the station, how food is cooked and even how to use a vacuum while cutting nails and hair to prevent the debris from floating around.
As his celebrity grew his childhood hero reached out.
Capt. Kirk himself, William Shatner, tweeted to Chris and asked…
“Are you tweeting from space?”
To which Chris responded,
“Yes, Standard Orbit, Captain. And we’re detecting signs of life on the surface.”
His videos and images not only showed the majesty of space, but the work by astronauts and cosmonauts on the space station.
And as he prepared to leave space one last time, he had something even bigger up his sleeve.
Space Oddity is one of the most famous songs in history.
It was written, recorded and released by David Bowie in 1969, the same year Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon.
The song was heavily inspired by the ending of Stanley Kubrick’s classic film 2001: A Space Odyssey and tells the story of an astronaut named Major Tom, who is orbiting the Earth and believes that he is going to die alone above the atmosphere.
Quick side tangent, did you know that the voice of HAL 9000 was voiced by Winnipeg’s Douglas Rain, a Canadian actor who co-founded the Stratford Festival.
Wild right?
Anyways, as Chris’ popularity exploded on social media, people started to ask him to cover Space Oddity while he was in space.
Chris’ son Evan wanted his father to do the song too and told him that if he didn’t do it, he would regret it forever.
In his book An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth Chris wrote that he wasn’t totally convinced, but he decided he would give it a shot.
To begin the process, Chris and Evan rewrote some of the lyrics to focus on life aboard the space station, which included mentions of the Soyuz and the ISS.
Using a simple mic and iPad, Chris then recorded the song over three takes from January to February 2013.
Once that was complete, they needed to get David Bowie’s permission to release it.
For that they turned to Emm Gryner for help.
The Canadian independent singer/songwriter, bassist and pianist has collaborated with Bowie in support of his 1999 album Hours, so she reached out.
Bowie responded to her email and said the idea was thrilling and to go for it.
Between late-April and early-May, Chris filmed himself floating through the station and performing the song using a camera mounted on a flexible arm.
Down on Earth, staff at the Canadian Space Agency worked to review all the footage and get legal approval where needed.
The video sparked an interesting legal question over copyright.
Who owns the rights when a song is recorded in space?
In the end, it came down to an agreement among the partners of the International Space Station, including the United States, Russia, Japan, Europe and Canada. With everything in order, Evan planned out the release.
Meanwhile a crisis was unfolding on the space station.
On May 9, 2013, mere days before Chris departure Russian cosmonaut Pavlov Vinogradov called him over to look out the window.
In broken English, he told Chris about sparks and fireworks outside.
At first, Chris thought he was saying he could see fireworks over Russia in honour of Victory Day, the celebration of Germany’s surrender in the Second World War.
But then he realized that the fireworks were coming from the station itself.
Chris described what he saw out the window as fireflies.
At first, he thought a meteorite had hit the station and when he contacted Mission Control, they agreed.
But then four hours later Mission Control told the ISS crew that they had an ammonia leak.
Ammonia is used to cool the batteries on the station and was the lifeblood of the entire space structure.
Now not only was it leaking, but the rate of that leak was also increasing.
The next day when the crew woke up, they received a message from Mission Control
The crew would need to do a spacewalk to pull out the pump controller box and determine what was causing the problem.
On May 11, 2013, American flight engineers Tom Marshburn and Christopher Cassidy performed the five-hour unplanned spacewalk in which they located and replaced the pump module.
Commander Chris Hadfield was now ready to go home.
On May 12, 2013, he turned over command of the ISS, and just before he left the station, he dropped the first music video recorded in space.
It accompanied a tweet on May 13 which read “With deference to the genius of David Bowie, here’s Space Oddity recorded on Station. A last glimpse of the World.”
David Bowie responded on Twitter,
“Hallo Spaceboy…”
Bowie later said it was possibly the most poignant version he had ever heard.
The video immediately went viral and to date, it has 55 million views on YouTube.
By the time he landed on May 14 Chris Hadfield was a Bonafide celebrity.
A month after his return Chris retired as an active astronaut.
His career stats are impressive. He spent 165 days, 16 hours and 18 minutes orbiting the Earth.
And now the world knew who he was.
He was on the front of Macleans magazine with a lightning bolt painted down his face in a nod to Bowie’s Aladdin Sane album cover.
In the autumn of 2014, he joined the University of Waterloo as a professor for a three-year term.
He also hosted the MasterClass web series on space exploration and found himself fielding requests from around the world.
On Oct. 29, 2013, his first book, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination and Being Prepared for Anything, was released.
The best-selling book received critical acclaim and won the CBA Libris Non-Fiction Book of the Year Award.
He followed that up with the book titled You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes: Photographs from the International Space Station in 2014.
Then he released a children’s book, The Darkest Dark two years later. Both books were best-sellers.
He also sang O Canada at a Toronto Maple Leafs vs Montreal Canadiens game in Toronto.
In October 2015, Chris released the album Space Sessions: Songs from A Tin Can, featuring songs he had recorded on the ISS.
It reached #10 on the Billboard Canadian Chart.
Most recently, Chris entered the fiction realm with his Apollo Murders Trilogy.
Set in an alternative world, the first novel, The Apollo Murders, was published in 2021 and follows Apollo 18, which is involved in a secret mission to the Moon.
While it is an alternative history novel, there was no Apollo 18 mission, many of the events and people in the book are real.
That was followed by The Defector in 2023, and Final Orbit in 2025.
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He has also received the Order of Canada and has a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame.
If that’s not enough both the Sarnia airport and asteroid are named after him
There is even a species of bee, Andrena hadfieldi, that carries his name!
In the 12 years since Chris Hadfield returned to Earth from space for the last time, his prestige and celebrity in Canada have only grown.
He still speaks to Canadians of all ages to get them interested in space and is Canada’s go-to expert.
Chris has been thinking of humanity’s great achievements in space as Artemis II made its historic mission to the Moon and back.
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*sources*
– Macleans Magazine Archive
– An Astronaut’s Guide To Life On Earth by Chris Hadfield
– Canadian Encyclopedia: https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/chris-hadfield
– Chris Hadfield: https://chrishadfield.ca
– Canadian Space Agency: https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/astronauts/canadian/retired/bio-chris-hadfield.asp
– Royal Military College of Canada: https://www.rmc-cmr.ca/en/college-commandants-office/chris-austin-hadfield
