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Chris Austin Hadfield, ASTRONAUT (b at Sarnia, Ont 29 Aug 1959). Hadfield's father, Roger, was a pilot with Air Canada and also flew his own aerobatic plane. Hadfield and his brothers David and Philip were air cadets and his brothers went on to become airline pilots. Hadfield opted for the military and graduated from the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ont, in mechanical engineering and received an MSc in aviation systems from the University of Tennessee in 1992.
Hadfield's distinguished career as a pilot began with 3 years flying CF-18s with Canadian Forces 425 Squadron in Québec. In 1985, he was the first CF-18 pilot to intercept a Soviet "Bear" aircraft in Canadian airspace. He next attended the US Air Force's test pilot ("top gun") school in California, where he was honoured as the best graduate of 1988. The following year, he became a Canadian exchange officer at the US Naval Air Test Center in Patuxent R, Md - a famous breeding ground for US astronauts. His highly risky work pushing high-performance aircraft out of control and finding ways to recover them earned him the US Navy's test pilot of the year award in 1991.
 Hadfield, ChrisCanadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield piloting the Canadarm during mission STS-74.
Training and Spacewalks
In June 1992, Hadfield was selected, along with 3 others, from among 5330 applicants for the Canadian astronaut program. He and Marc GARNEAU were assigned to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston to train astronauts who operate shuttle systems, including the CANADARM, and perform spacewalks. Hadfield became the first Canadian among the support team at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. He also participated in redesigning and modernizing the cockpit displays for the shuttle's flight deck instruments. In September 1994, Hadfield was assigned to shuttle flight STS-74 on the space shuttle Atlantis and was chosen as the primary Canadarm operator. It was the second of 7 planned dockings between the shuttle and the Russian space station Mir and one of the most technically complex missions. Hadfield played a key role in helping to assemble the tunnel that linked Atlantis with Mir. Using the Canadarm, he lifted the 4100-kg Russian-built docking module out of its cradle, tilted it to a vertical position and aligned it just a few centimetres over the entry hatch leading inside the shuttle. Once the tunnel was installed, the 4 Americans and one Canadian on Atlantis mingled with the 2 Russians and one German on Mir. A musician himself, Hadfield brought the Mir crew a special gift: a compact guitar with earphones. After his flight, Hadfield was assigned to be "capcom" (voice of Mission Control) for mission STS-77, on which Marc Garneau flew as a mission specialist in May 1996.
Author
LYDIA DOTTO
Suggested Reading
Lydia Dotto, "Man on a Mission," Equinox Magazine 14, 5 (1995).
Links to Other Sites
Canadian Space Agency
A fascinating website devoted to Canada's far-reaching space program. Check out the latest news about Canadian astronauts, Canadarm and Canadarm 2, recent space missions, and more. Also features "Canadian Space Milestones" and educational resources for students and their teachers.
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