Chris Hadfield
Astronaut, test pilot and author
Chris Hadfield is a retired Canadian astronaut and test pilot who commanded the International Space Station. He wrote An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth.
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Canadian Born 1959 in Sarnia, Canada
About Chris Hadfield
Born in 1959, Hadfield studied engineering at the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario, and spent 25 years in the Canadian Armed Forces, first as a fighter pilot and then as a test pilot. The Canadian Space Agency accepted him into its astronaut program in 1992. He flew in space three times: to the Russian station Mir in 1995, to the International Space Station in 2001, and again in December 2012. On the 2001 mission he became the first Canadian to walk in space. In 2013 he commanded the International Space Station, where he took photographs of Earth and shared life on board with a wide online audience. He retired soon after returning in May 2013. Hadfield has written five books. One of them, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, reached the New York Times bestseller list.