Hadfield, Chris, 1959- : Chris Hadfield was born on August 29, 1959 in Sarnia, Ontario. He received his Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario (1982) followed by his Masters of Science in Aviation Systems from University of Tennessee (1992).
Col. Hadfield was selected as a part of the second class of Canadian Astronauts in 1992, from a pool of more than 5,330 applicants. He was soon assigned by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in Houston, Texas where he worked on the development of the Space Shuttle's glass cockpit. In this time Col. Hadfield also served as the Chief CAPCOM for 25 space shuttle missions.
Col. Hadfield made his first trip to space in November of 1995, when he launched to space on the Space Shuttle Atlantis for the STS-74 mission to the Russian Mir Space Station. On this mission, he became the first Canadian to operate the Canadarm in orbit, as well as the only Canadian to ever visit the Mir Space Station. Follow his return, in 1996, he was appointed the Chief Astronaut for the CSA; a position he held until 2000.
In April 2001, Col. Hadfield returned to space on the STS-100 mission flying to the International Space Station (ISS). On this mission, the Canadarm-2 for the Mobile Servicing System (MSS) was installed. To perform the installation, two different spacewalks had to be performed; making Col. Hadfield the first Canadian to perform a spacewalk.
Following his return (2001), he was transferred to the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre (GCTC) to serve as NASA's Director of Operations in Star City, Russia. While here he was responsible for coordinating the ISS crew activities in Russia, supervising crew training and support staff, as well as negotiation of policy with Russia. In this time he also trained as a flight engineer cosmonaut for the Soyuz TMA spacecraft and to perform spacewalks using the Orlan spacesuit.
In 2003 Col. Hadfield returned to Houston, to serve as the Chief of Robotics for the NASA Astronaut Office until 2006. In 2006, he was appointed as the Chief of International Space Station Operations at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston; a position he held until 2008.
In September 2012, Col. Hadfield was assigned to ISS Expedition 34/35, which launched on December 19, 2012 using a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. On March 13, 2013 he became the first Canadian to command a spacecraft when he became the Commander of the ISS for the second portion of his mission to the ISS. On May 13, 2013 he landed in Kazakhstan following a 146 day mission. In June, Col. Hadfield announced that he would be leaving the CSA effective July 3, 2013.
Selection: CSA 1992 - Class 2
Number of Spaceflights: 3
Missions: STS-74 (November 12 - 20, 1995)
STS-100 (April 19 - May 1, 2001)
Soyuz TMA-07M/ISS-34/35 (December 19, 2012 - May 14, 2013)
Time in Space: 165 days, 16 hours, 21 minutes
Spacewalks: 2 (14 hours 50 minutes)
Left CSA: July 3, 2013
