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Astronaut Chris Hadfield on 13 Moments That Changed His Life | WIRED — Transcript

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0:00in the days before selfies this was a
0:02cool selfie you look close you can see
0:04my mustache right there proud of it
0:07I shaved my mustache off once and my
0:10wife didn't like it so there's no
0:11question the mustache stays I'm Chris
0:14Hadfield we're gonna look at some
0:15moments from my life that helped turn me
0:18into Who I am today
0:20that is spaceship Atlantis that's the
0:24nose of a space shuttle you can just
0:26barely see Atlantis written there and
0:27that is my crew this is my first space
0:29flight STS 74 in the fall of 1995 and we
0:34had just come up and docked with the
0:36space station Mir and we had built a
0:39part of Mir and we were only docked for
0:41a few days but I realized hey if we get
0:43the angles right I could ask one of the
0:46MIR crew one of the three people living
0:47on Mir to get a camera and take a
0:50picture while we're docked so we waited
0:51until we came around the world the right
0:53way so the Sun was shining in our window
0:55I spoke to Tomas Reiter and German
0:57cosmonaut onboard the International
0:58Board the the Russian Space Station it
1:00was like okay take a bunch of pictures
1:02and then I went racing back down through
1:04all the tunnels into Atlantis and got
1:06everybody to stick their faces up into
1:08the Sun and it's incredibly bright it's
1:10like sticking your head into an oven
1:12because there's nothing between you and
1:15the Sun but that little pane of glass
1:17right there so it couldn't be more
1:19scorching an amazing human experience in
1:24this picture I think I'm about five
1:26years old and inside a an instant Quaker
1:29Oats box my dad took this picture of me
1:32I've spent most of my life in a box
1:33that's what we call the simulator as an
1:35astronaut we call it the box but just a
1:38few years after that when when I got to
1:40be about nine years old that's when the
1:42very first two people walked in there
1:51that little boy just a few years later
1:53that link between the fantasy of flying
1:57my little rocket ship box and the
1:59reality of three people climbing into a
2:01box and taken it to the moon and two of
2:03them climbing out of it and walking on
2:05the surface it made me believe that
2:08impossible things can happen
2:10and that maybe that's something that I
2:12could even do so when you see your kid
2:14playing in a box let them dream that's
2:18my brother Dave and I leaning against my
2:20dad's Ford at Sarnia Airport my dad was
2:23the very first pilot at Sarnia Airport
2:25he was taking a friend flying and his
2:27friend in the backseat and a little old
2:28two-seat airplane and his friend was
2:30getting sick in the back and my dad was
2:32like I were gonna land so he can throw
2:34up and he saw this Airport under
2:35construction so he put his airplane down
2:38sort of next to the runway with the big
2:40X on it and the manager came out and
2:43said hey you can't land here my dad's oh
2:44look at this guy he's throwing up and
2:46they started talking and the guy offered
2:47him a job because my dad was a brand-new
2:49flight instructor and after my first
2:51spaceflight
2:52they named the airport after me and it's
2:55now Chris Hadfield Airport I decided to
2:59be an astronaut when I was 9 years old
3:01and I had no idea how to be an astronaut
3:04I mean how do you make yourself into an
3:05astronaut but I thought astronauts fly
3:07so I should learn to fly so I joined Air
3:10Cadets at 13 years old I studied
3:11leadership I studied meteorology all
3:13sorts of stuff but then I passed all the
3:15exams and they chose me to to become a
3:18glider pilot I was only 15
3:21this is graduation day I had just
3:24qualified as a military jet pilot
3:27there's a parade you get your wings on
3:28your uniform and it you can almost hear
3:31the sound of the doors opening in front
3:33of you of the choices that are about to
3:35come up as a result of work that you've
3:37done and our very first child had been
3:39born Hellena had given birth to him back
3:41in Ontario she'd moved out to Moose Jaw
3:43that's Kyle a hugely proud day Hellena
3:46is so beautiful in this picture it's a
3:49good day I was a fighter pilot during
3:52the Cold War
3:53regularly the soviets would come into
3:56canadian airspace sometimes they were
3:58just coming through the airspace on the
3:59way down to cuba sometimes they would
4:01come into Canadian airspace to practice
4:03cruise missile launches on North America
4:05I so I was sleeping in an alert facility
4:08up in northern Quebec and the horn would
4:11go off in the middle of the night
4:13great blaring horn and we would race
4:15jump into our Jets we had to be airborne
4:16from dead sleep to airborne in 12
4:19minutes we raced gotten our jets we flew
4:21out and found these two bear bombers
4:24this was the very first f-18 intercept
4:27of a Soviet bear bomber and here on the
4:30left side of the f-18 we had this great
4:32big light that I could turn on with my
4:34baby finger so we came up in the dawn I
4:36threw my light on we could have a good
4:38look at it see whether they have hostile
4:40intent that day we were fully armed but
4:44they didn't have any hostile intent they
4:46were peaceful that day so there I am
4:48flying on Eric's wing trying to hold
4:50this enormous camera and focus and not
4:52banging into the canopy and not crash
4:54into anybody as I'm as I'm trying to get
4:57this picture it was my first role in
5:01combat it was me right at the very edge
5:04where one little mistake one incorrect
5:07judgment could have huge international
5:09consequences we just bumped the two
5:12nations next to each other for a little
5:14while and then we peeled away and they
5:16actually carried on and went down to
5:17Cuba this picture was taken at Edwards
5:22Air Force Base in California where I
5:24went to test pilot school and it's where
5:26I had a chance to not only be an
5:29engineer and be a fighter pilot but
5:32learn to be an engineering test pilot
5:34the most demanding year of my life
5:38I flew 32 different airplanes that year
5:40had to write a huge report about each
5:42one had to do all sorts of testing an
5:44intensely demanding physical and mental
5:48year and that night I won the award as
5:51the top test pilot and it was just so
5:54surreal a real great feeling of proven
5:58reward for a huge amount of work
6:02I was so pleased when I got hired as one
6:06of Canada's new astronauts that I wasn't
6:08the only one with a moustache that's
6:10Dave Williams and he's a bunch of
6:13different things a pilot and a software
6:15engineer but also a medical doctor and
6:16that's Mike McKay who is a robotics
6:19engineer and Julie Payette who was an
6:21electrical engineer and we are Canada's
6:23new astronauts we had had a huge
6:25national competition but finally for the
6:27four of us it came down to the day that
6:29the president of the brand-new Canadian
6:31Space Agency phoned us and said we would
6:33like you to be one of Canada's
6:35astronauts we'd only been astronauts for
6:38like minutes when this picture was taken
6:43oddly enough one of the common questions
6:45is what does an astronaut do between
6:46space flights you know as if we're like
6:48sitting in a waiting room or a lounge or
6:50something somewhere but I was an
6:52astronaut for 21 years
6:53I was only in space for six months so
6:56for twenty and a half years I was
6:59training and preparing and supporting
7:01other space flights I did a bunch of
7:03jobs I was chief of robotics I was
7:05working in payload safety I was chief of
7:08Space Station operations I was NASA's
7:10director in Russia but I was also
7:12someone who worked in Mission Control I
7:14was a Capcom capsule communicator back
7:18when those spaceships were shaped like
7:19capsules and when Houston wants to talk
7:22to a space ship you can't have 50 people
7:25on the radio I was sort of the trusted
7:28agent for the crew on earth and I did
7:31that for 25 shuttle flights in a row and
7:34I was NASA's chief Capcom so I ran that
7:37whole side of things it was the next
7:39best thing to spaceflight when I was a
7:43little kid in the box
7:44the thing I really wanted to do was walk
7:46in space not just fly a spaceship but go
7:49outside and I was lucky enough to be
7:52asked to help build this huge piece of
7:55hardware this enormous robotic arm
7:57called the Canada arm canadarm2 in fact
7:59onto the space station I'd been training
8:06for it for four and a half years
8:07developing all the procedures and
8:09everything to be ready for this day when
8:12I was outside on a spacewalk helping to
8:14build the International
8:15Space Station when suddenly exactly when
8:18this picture was taken one of my eyes
8:20was struck blind and I was like what's
8:21going on and and my hand came up to rub
8:25my eye and of course I'm wearing a
8:27helmet
8:27boink off the helmet is thinking how
8:28stupid is that Here I am an astronaut
8:30you don't even know I can't rub my eye
8:31but that without gravity that tears
8:33didn't drain
8:35they just this irritated eyeball tear
8:38just got bigger and bigger and bigger
8:40until it started dribbling like a tiny
8:43waterfall into my other eye and now both
8:47eyes were contaminated with something
8:49and then I had to stop working because I
8:51couldn't see what I was doing anymore I
8:52called down to Houston and I'd worked in
8:55Mission Control as a Capcom so I knew
8:57what a revelation that was going to be
8:59for them to me to call down and say
9:00Houston hey I've got some problem and
9:04both my eyes are blind what do you want
9:06me to do
9:06and they thought maybe out of my
9:08backpack here where my air purification
9:10equipment was maybe the chemical that
9:12takes the carbon dioxide out of the air
9:14it's called lithium hydroxide maybe that
9:16was getting in my eyes so they said open
9:19your purge valve and right here on the
9:21left hand side of my helmet I could
9:23reach up and turn a little valve and let
9:25my oxygen hiss out into space and at
9:29this moment I am held in place by my
9:32feet on the end of an arm I'm not
9:34touching anything else I'm blind and I'm
9:37listening to as my oxygen is squirting
9:41out into space
9:42and fortunately that fresh oxygen
9:44blowing in on the back of my helmet was
9:47enough to start evaporating the big
9:49balls of tears around my eyes to the
9:51crusty stuff around my eyes as it
9:53evaporated blinkin eventually I could
9:55start to see again I told him I'm okay
9:57shut my valve and then I got back to
9:59work and it turned out to be something
10:01really benign it was just the the the
10:05anti-fog off my visor like a mixture of
10:08soap and oil had gotten into my eye
10:10but since then we've changed the
10:12anti-fog and so we learned from it but
10:14it was it was my very first spacewalk
10:16and a pretty interesting hurdle to have
10:19to cross while trying to do my very
10:21first walk
10:22[Music]
10:24this picture is at Edwards Air Force
10:26Base at the US Air Force test pilot
10:28school it is an extremely difficult year
10:31you can see the pictures of all of the
10:33other graduates and airplanes that have
10:35been through that school and when you're
10:37working really hard and studying really
10:38hard you you want a chance to to relax
10:41and we had parties every week but this
10:43guy in the cowboy hat his name's Rick
10:45husband he was a commander of Columbia
10:47commander Rick husband in 2003 when Rick
10:56and his crew were coming back down
10:58through the atmosphere they'd had damage
11:00during launch and we all knew the
11:03vehicle was damaged but nobody knew how
11:05badly coming back down through the
11:06atmosphere that hole in the left wing
11:10allowed the huge heat and pressure of
11:14the plasma field around the vehicle to
11:17go into the wing and melt the spar and
11:20burn up everything inside the wing the
11:22left wing came off and the vehicle
11:24tumbled and came apart and Rick and all
11:26his crew were killed it was the result
11:30of our own decision making you know we
11:33we knew that his ship was damaged but we
11:37sort of said well we don't know how
11:39badly it's damaged and we really can't
11:41sort of do anything anyway so let's just
11:43assume it's okay and we didn't even ask
11:45them to go outside on a spacewalk to
11:48crawl over the big door of the shuttle
11:50and look around and see how big the hole
11:52in the wing was if we had moved heaven
11:54and earth maybe there would have been a
11:56way to rescue them and a couple years
11:59later when we changed a lot of things
12:02and the next shuttle flew it was
12:04triumphant sort of a way to venerate
12:08Rick and his crew
12:09and every ship that has ever flown in
12:11space since then has been better because
12:13of the sacrifice that Rick made I'm glad
12:16we got a chance to sing together too
12:19this is a soyuz spaceship
12:21it's the third spaceship that i flew
12:23after twice on space shuttles Atlantis
12:26and endeavour this is the workhorse of
12:29taking people to the space station and
12:31back Soyuz it's a Russian word for a
12:33union soviet ski soyuz Soviet Union
12:36because it unifies the earth and the
12:38space station and it's just barely big
12:42enough for three people and it's just a
12:44tiny little capsule you want to make it
12:45as small as possible because that makes
12:48it easier to push into space if you're
12:50claustrophobic this would not be a good
12:52job I mean that's that's business class
12:55on a Soyuz right there that's as good as
12:57it's going to get
12:58I was real lucky to be the like the
13:00pilot or the copilot of the Soyuz and
13:02and it was a great way to get to space
13:04and a real nice tough safe reliable way
13:07to get back to earth this is a still
13:11from a YouTube video
13:19and that guitar is a Larry vay acoustic
13:24guitar parlor guitar made in Vancouver
13:26Canada and it is up on the space station
13:28right now in fact it's been up there
13:30since the summer of 2001 and it's put
13:32there because lots of astronauts are
13:34musicians and we're a long way from home
13:36and it's nice on holidays and a tee at
13:39parties in the evening you know when
13:40you're just trying to be a group of
13:42people to play songs that we all love
13:45and know and my son who was really
13:47helping me with social media my son Evan
13:49said dad you should do a version of
13:51Space Oddity and I was like Space Oddity
13:53you can't cover Bowie you know it's like
13:55covering Bach or covering Supertramp or
13:57something it's not going to happen
13:58and besides Space Oddity is about an
14:01astronaut dying in space I don't want to
14:04sing that I'm living up here but my son
14:06far wiser in these things than I am he
14:08said dad I'll rewrite the words for you
14:10but you should just do it it's it's a
14:12classic tune lots of people want you to
14:13just make a version of it so I in my
14:17little sleeping pod and just did a
14:20little karaoke along with David
14:21listening to him in one ear singing into
14:23the microphone but then Evan my son Wade
14:26back in and said dad it's got to be
14:29video you know you're in space no one's
14:31gonna believe it if you don't have a
14:32video but that's like Evan I'm the
14:36commander of a space ship I'm busy up
14:38here you know I I I can't he said if you
14:42don't do it you will regret it for the
14:43rest of your life okay so a Saturday
14:46afternoon when I was supposed to be
14:47doing something else I set this up and I
14:50I took a camera and I just like velcroed
14:54it to the wall hit record I had a little
14:56pad playing of the nice audio track that
14:59I'd done with em and Joe and I just sang
15:01along with myself and dinner did
15:03floating and it took about I don't know
15:05an hour and a half
15:06floating around different places in the
15:07station sing along with myself here sing
15:09along over there float the guitar down
15:11them the Japanese module here and then
15:14float around and just sing along once
15:15with myself and then I shipped it all
15:18down
15:20control to Major Tom
15:24[Music]
15:25we got permission from Bowie and his
15:28organization who loved the audio track
15:30but on the night before I came home the
15:33video was done and haven't released it
15:36to the world and this video by the time
15:40I landed like 12 hours later had been
15:42seen seven million times and but for me
15:45the best part was that Bowie loved it he
15:48he saw it he said it was you know maybe
15:50the most poignant version of the song
15:52ever done I never got to meet him in
15:54person I wish I had but I'm delighted
15:56that Evan talked me into doing this I'm
15:58proud of how the song came out but for
16:01me the best part was that David Bowie
16:03finally got to fly in space which he'd
16:06always dreamed of I hope you enjoyed
16:09looking at these pictures with me you
16:11should do that sit down and go through
16:12pictures and remind yourself of the
16:14special moments in your life
16:22you

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