An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth

Chris Hadfield would make anyone feel inadequate. An aeronautical engineer, a top graduate of the US Air Force Test Pilot School, former US Navy test pilot of the year, former Chief of Robotics at the Johnson Space Centre, former commander of the International Space Station and, essentially, a rock star, with his zero-gravity version of David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’ receiving millions of views online. Oh, and he also speaks Russian.

But, says Hadfield, “I wasn’t destined to be an astronaut. I had to turn myself into one”. It is a transformation he describes with great humour and modesty, the story of how the 1969 moon landing inspired a nine-year-old in rural Ontario to overcome his fear of heights — let alone the fact that Canada didn’t have a space programme until the 1990s — and become the man responsible for success and safety aboard the “world’s spaceship”.