Hadfield anticipates ‘magic’ of return to space this month
Canadian headed for ISS
Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is a tough-as-nails pilot, and soon to be commander of a $150-billion space station.
But he has not lost his boyhood wonder.
“It’s almost like a land of magic,” said Hadfield, describing the weightless environment of space he is due to enter on Dec. 19.
Once you leave Earth’s gravity behind, he said “it’s like someone tapped you on the head and said ‘fly.’”
Hadfield, who entered quarantine Wednesday in final preparations for his launch from Russia’s snowy Cosmodrome, plans to savour the six months he will spend floating around the International Space Station.
A veteran of two shorter space flights, Hadfield is looking forward to having “the time and ability to really become someone who lives there.”
“To internalize it, to make it my postal code, that’s what I am really looking forward to,” Hadfield said Tuesday.
The 53-year-old astronaut plans to celebrate an early Christmas while in quarantine at the cosmodrome, located on the barren and snowy plains of Kazakhstan.
Hadfield’s wife, three grown children, and friends, are flying in for the launch. They’ll be able to exchange holiday wishes through windows, but he says they’ll have to pass health checks to get into the same room with him.
“You don’t want a stomach ailment,” he said. “And you sure don’t want a head cold where you can’t clear your ears, otherwise we couldn’t launch.”
Hadfield has been training for the mission for four years and he intends “to walk out to the rocket ship healthy, rested and really mentally up to speed on every little detail that will make the flight go right.”
Hadfield has made two previous space flights. He was the first Canadian to operate the robotic Canadarm in space in 1995 and on his second flight in 2001 Hadfield made the first Canadian spacewalk as he attached Canadarm2 to the International Space Station.
In another first for a Canadian, Hadfield will take the helm of the space station for the second half of his upcoming mission. As commander he will lead a crew of two Americans and three Russians during the final three months of his stay aboard the orbital science lab. The station orbits around Earth every 90 minutes from its perch about 360 kilometres above planet.
Hadfield’s list of tasks for the mission include using the Canadarm2 to capture a space capsule filled with food, clothing and equipment, and go on a spacewalk or two.
He and his crewmates will also oversee 130 experiments — many of which they will conduct on themselves — exploring everything from how the human heart shrinks in space, to antimatter in the universe.