DOWN TO EARTH

WHEN CHRIS HADFIELD – the first Canadian commander of the International Space Station – last spoke with Zoomer, it was for our fifth anniversary cover story in 2013, just after announcing his retirement from space flight. But “retirement” in astronaut terms is subjective. The 57-year-old writes music and books, teaches, does speaking engagements and is also now the host of the CuriosityStream show Miniverse, which scales down our solar system to fit inside the United States – perfect for an interplanetary road trip. “You really start to get a gut feel,” he says, “of not only the size of the solar system but the unfathomable distance between each one of the planets.”

MIKE CRISOLAGO How are you enjoying life since leaving space travel behind?

CHRIS HADFIELD I love this late 50s stage of life. It’s my favourite so far. And you mentioned leaving my last career behind. I don’t think you ever do that. I think all of the things you’ve done have put you in a position to be where you are right now. It’s more like building a platform that you perpetually stand higher and higher upon, and you don’t just leave it. It turned you into who you are today.

And today

MC you’ve achieved pop

culture celebrity status. Did you ever imagine that would happen?

CH It’s all sort of one long piece of the same continuum, but you can’t ever predict how it’s going to go. I mean, we got invited to spend the night at Windsor Castle with the Queen and Prince Philip and have dinner with them. Some things are just fairytale. My mom, she’s 80 but she was doing cartwheels just out of the shared excitement.

MC You fell in love with space at age nine after the moon landing. Do new discoveries, like the recent TRAPPIST-1 star and surrounding planets, still give you the same thrill?

CH The other night, almost a full moon had just risen and right toward the edges of the moon, the shadows were long enough that the three dimensionality just leapt out at you … And it was just so delightful. I mean, my own reaction was “Wow.” And that should never go away in your life. You should be awestruck as often as possible and put yourself in a position to be awestruck. Go walk into the largest cathedral, go to a catacomb, go to the top of the highest tower and look down on a clear day and remind yourself of the enormity of things you don’t understand and the feelings of wonder and awe that inspire us to do so many of the things we do.

Miniverse begins worldwide streaming April 20 on CuriosityStream. For more information, go to www.curiositystream.com.