Meet the world's most famous astronaut - Chris Hadfield

Credit: NASA

How does the life on Earth look like from the space?
It looks beautiful. It looks extremely different from place to place but maybe more importantly it looks the same. It is interesting to see a town that I know, a place that I've been and then travel halfway around the world in 45 minutes and see a town that I've never even heard of and see how similar they are, how people behave the same everywhere that we live all around the world. And to it's really refreshing and delightful to see how people tend to choose and and decide to live their lives the same everywhere around the world. It is very unifying.

How do our earthly fears, concerns and joys look like from the space perspective?
We're just people. We don't do things perfectly. We sometimes do things really well and sometimes make mistakes. But I think you get a sense of stability from having traveled into space, from seeing the world. I've been around the world 2,600 times and all of the concerns and fears and joys get put into perspective I think to see it all over and over again, to see so many people, to see the patience of the world. And the time spectral I think gives a stability to it. It's very easy to get very concerned and worried about the things are happening right now but when you go around the world enough times it adds the dimension of time and I think that changes some of the perspective of the joys and fears.

What is the feeling to see the world from the space?
To see the world from space is something close to magical. To be able to see the entire planet as this immense patient place but at the same time as one small circle, small sphere with one bubble of air around that we are all breathing out of together. You get a sense of the immensity of the world. But also the fact that we are not just passengers but the crew on board this  ship and and you get increased sense of responsibility for it.

 *Excerpt from my interview with Chris Hadfield – First Canadian Astronaut to walk in space. Read more about the beauty of a spacewalk here