Chris Hadfield: in space 'you recognise the unanimity of our existence'

He captured our imagination with a zero gravity cover of David Bowie's Space Oddity, but Chris Hadfield's time in space was a multi-facted, 'enriching' experience. The astronaut and Twitter phenomenon talks about the wonder of spacewalking and why he'll never look as good as Sandra Bullock in a spacesuitIt is a disorienting business, being in space, and most astronauts in the first days of orbit scan the Earth for reminders of home. The Russians look for their great lakes; the Americans for mountain ranges. For Chris Hadfield, the former commander of the International Space Station, it was Plank Road, a 19th-century thoroughfare running through southern Ontario, Canada. "These guys put it there 150 years ago, and it was a neat thing for me to see from orbit. Hey, look! That's where I'm from!" After a few days, the perceptive lens widens. "And you just start seeing the whole world."Hadfield, 54, is sipping coffee from a Nasa mug in the sun room of his home on Stag Island, a picturesque retreat 300km west of Toronto. Since returning from space last year, he has faced an old-school astronaut problem, one that general boredom with the space programme had all but erased: not just celebrity, but a sort of stunned adoration. At a recent event, he was asked in front of 5,000 people, "What is the meaning of life?" The music video he shot from orbit, a version of David Bowie's Space Oddity, has been viewed 200m times. Hadfield's skills are extraordinary: he is a fighter pilot...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: The Guardian Nasa Astronomy Social media Books Technology Extracts Features Twitter YouTube The space shuttle Interviews Science Source Type: news