“I wasn’t destined to be an astronaut,” says Chris Hadfield: “I had to turn myself into one.” Inspired by Neil Armstrong stepping on to the moon, Hadfield's whole life has been a preparation for space. The odds were against him (he was up against 5,329 other Canadian applicants) and even once he had been selected, the training was gruelling. But it was worth all the hard work for his first overpowering glimpse of the “raw beauty” of the universe during a space walk: “Wwwooooowww.” Hadfield offers a memorable insight into the space programme and the life of an astronaut, from the relentless preparation and the dangers (“strapping yourself on top of what is essentially a large bomb is plenty risky”), to the difficulty of eating jam in space (“it has a way of floating off your toast and splattering everywhere”), and of course the making of his zero-gravity cover version of Bowie’s “Space Oddity” (it was his son’s idea). Despite all the derring-do and new‑found stardom, Hadfield remains refreshingly grounded: “The blast of glory that attends launch and landing doesn’t last long.”
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