WEBVTT - Conversations with Cornesy - Chris Hadfield 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.560 Did the folks Welcome to the conversations. Have you ever 0:00:02.680 --> 0:00:05.080 wondered what it would be like to fly in space, 0:00:05.240 --> 0:00:08.559 you know, to walk in space, to work in space. 0:00:09.200 --> 0:00:11.639 I can't imagine what it was like. But our next 0:00:11.640 --> 0:00:16.040 guest has done all of that. Chris Hadfield is an astronaut, 0:00:16.040 --> 0:00:18.440 and he's been an astronaut, he was a fighter pilot. 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:22.720 He's a writer, plays music as well. He joins us, 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:25.239 Chris Hadfield walking to the program. 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:26.880 My pleasure. Thanks. 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:31.520 And in addition to those like just seemingly incomprehensible things 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:34.400 that I've done, I've also flown three rocket ships to 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:37.040 leave Earth and then flown them back down to land. 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:40.680 It's just it amazes me actually to think of some 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:42.400 of the stuff that's possible in life. 0:00:43.200 --> 0:00:45.720 Got amazing clarity in our vision. Here we're talking to 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:48.680 you on zoom. Our radio listeners wouldn't understand that. But 0:00:49.360 --> 0:00:51.360 what camera are you using it? 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:51.800 Yeah? 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:55.800 I have a nice camera, and when COVID hit, I thought, gosh, 0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:57.400 if I can't be there in person, I should get 0:00:57.400 --> 0:01:00.840 a good so I could describe it for you. It's 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:05.000 a Sony A seven R with an auto focus, pretty 0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:08.600 good zoom kind of lens, and so it provides a 0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:12.280 really nice crisp image. And I have a You probably 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:14.800 have a nice microphone, but I have a good Roady 0:01:14.920 --> 0:01:17.880 studio microphone as well. I just if you can't be 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:20.280 there in person, it's nice to get as close as 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:23.000 you can. Way better than the cameras we had on 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:25.679 the Space station. They were pretty fuzzy and slow. 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:28.800 Where did it all start? I mean that you are 0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:32.720 a unique person to achieve the things you've done, and 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:35.080 to qualify for the things you've done, to be selected 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:37.880 for the things you've done. I'm always intrigued in this, 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:42.679 the genesis of genius and high achievement. Where does it start? 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:47.280 Well, I'm no genius, but the genesis of the path 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:51.400 of life that I followed. Well, obviously you know I'm 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:55.080 the descendant of hundreds and hundreds of generations of folks 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:58.600 who have chosen to explore instead of chosen to stay 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:02.760 in one place. My great grandfather chose to leave his 0:02:02.880 --> 0:02:05.559 place of birth and travel to Canada and settle there, 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:08.760 and he was hugely inspiring to me. My middle name 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:11.679 is named for him, Austin, and then as a kid 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:15.160 growing up, he was valued and revered. I knew him 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:17.720 when I was little. One of my first memories is 0:02:18.080 --> 0:02:22.360 running through rain drops and my great grandfather, Austin hadfield 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:26.640 in his Yorkshire acts, which I don't know how to do, 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:29.640 but he said, you ran so fast, you ran between 0:02:29.639 --> 0:02:33.400 the rain drops. It's my first memory in life. And 0:02:34.720 --> 0:02:39.000 my dad was a pilot, and so aviation was always 0:02:39.320 --> 0:02:40.480 something nearby. 0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:45.360 At least I knew my dad flew. But what really got. 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:49.000 My attention was the chance to not just fly in 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:54.000 the atmosphere, but to fly in space. Watching television, you know, 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:56.919 with Star Trek, watching two thousand and one, a space 0:02:56.960 --> 0:03:00.640 odyssey that was, you know, when I was eight years 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:04.200 old or nine years old or something, and they were terrific, 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:08.080 sort of like X Men or you know, Guardians of 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:11.880 the Galaxy, sort of this great, fantastic, cool, inspiring but 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:18.000 fake idea. But what really convinced me was that at 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:20.800 the same time people were actually doing it. You know, 0:03:20.960 --> 0:03:24.000 Yuri Gagarin flew in space when I was just learning 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:27.480 to walk, and then Al Shepherd flew just a month later, 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:30.840 and then more and more people were flying in space. 0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:34.240 Valentino Tiroshkova went up and spent several days in space. 0:03:34.360 --> 0:03:36.680 And then there was this race to the Moon and 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:40.240 the summer that I turned ten years old with Mike 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:45.160 Collins orbiting, the little ship undocked from Mike and descended 0:03:45.200 --> 0:03:48.080 down and landed on the surface of the Moon with 0:03:48.280 --> 0:03:52.040 Neil Armstrong at the controls and Buzz Aldrin beside him, 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:57.320 and I just thought, this is my fantasy, but it's 0:03:57.320 --> 0:04:00.480 a reality. This is an actual thing that people do 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:02.880 now for the first time in all of history, this 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:06.240 is happening. Well, I'm alive, and this is maybe. 0:04:05.960 --> 0:04:07.400 Something that I could do. 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:10.840 And so to me, there couldn't have been anything more 0:04:10.880 --> 0:04:16.000 inspiring than that human achievement and the realization that that 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:18.560 was open to me if I chose to pursue a 0:04:18.600 --> 0:04:20.400 life that would allow it to happen. 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:22.120 And so yeah. 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:24.080 That's where I got my inspiration from. 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:29.520 So many questions from that little few sentences there. Firstly, 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:30.880 did you make me al Armstrong? 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:32.880 Yes, yeah I did. 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:35.919 I was lucky enough to serve as an astronaut for 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:40.320 twenty one years, so I met everybody, all of the cosmonauts. 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:43.719 We also have a professional society called the Association of 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:48.440 Space Explorers, and if you've if you've been above one 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:51.760 hundred kilometers from the surface, and especially if you've orbited 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:53.880 the world at least once, you can join. And so 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:57.320 I know everybody from all of the nations of the world. 0:04:57.400 --> 0:05:00.720 I was president of the Association of Space Explorer and 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:04.200 so yeah, I met Neil a few times. And it's 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:07.919 and Mike Collins and Buzz Buzz is still alive. And 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:09.920 I know, but Buzz is in my phone. In fact, 0:05:09.920 --> 0:05:15.039 we could give Buzz a call. But uh uh, it's 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:19.440 it's lovely to have a chance to meet the folks 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:22.880 that were larger than life, that you you idolize, and 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:26.479 to find out that they're just people and that they 0:05:26.520 --> 0:05:31.400 managed to do these things despite their imperfections and despite 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:35.800 their humanness. Uh there there, they were just incredibly focused 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:39.240 and capable people. And I found that very satisfying and 0:05:39.360 --> 0:05:43.160 enabling and humbling and and I honor their achievements. 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:47.240 Yeah, I'm digressing, But did you have a chance to 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:49.760 speak to Mike Collins. Mike Collins at one stage the 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:53.680 loneliest man in the in the universe universe, I suppose 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:56.880 you'd call it that when when he's capsule is on 0:05:56.920 --> 0:05:58.599 the other side of the moon and he's got no 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:02.599 communication with the rest of the world. Did you have 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:05.760 a chance to talk to those I did issues with that. 0:06:06.200 --> 0:06:08.400 I didn't spend very much time with Mike, but I 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:11.280 got to spend some time with him in Washington. Actually, 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:15.680 it was during one of the people liked to notice that, Hey, 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:18.440 it's been a round number since we did something, you know, 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:20.800 it's been ten years, it's been twenty years, and it 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:24.040 was one of the Apollo Landing anniversaries, and I was 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:25.359 I think I went to. 0:06:25.360 --> 0:06:26.920 The White House that day. 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:31.040 Anyway, it was just something in Washington, and Mike had 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:34.200 gone on to head up the Smithsonian, that tremendous collection 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:38.320 of museums in Washington, and I spent some time talking 0:06:38.320 --> 0:06:41.680 to him, and I'd read his book Carrying the Fire, 0:06:41.880 --> 0:06:46.400 which I think is still such an excellent capture of 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:49.440 what it was like to do all those things, the 0:06:49.520 --> 0:06:52.799 type of mentality, his own views on it, the sardonic 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:55.320 humor that he has, and I'd read his book a 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:57.480 couple of times, and so it was just wonderful to 0:06:57.800 --> 0:06:59.719 meet him and get to know him and to thank 0:06:59.800 --> 0:07:03.039 him for taking the risks that he did so that 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:05.720 it would enable someone like me to have the courage 0:07:05.720 --> 0:07:06.880 to give it a try myself. 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:10.840 So you're this little kid watching Neil austrong Land on 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:14.640 the moon and you're inspired to do it, But a 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:18.080 billion other kids would have been inspired to the same. 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:22.560 Why why you? Why were you ire to achieve that goal? 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:26.200 In truth, I watched Neil and Buzz step onto the 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:29.240 surface of the moon about one hundred yards from where 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:32.640 I am right now. Oddly enough, we didn't have a 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:35.320 television at the time, but our neighbor did, and so 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:37.440 I went over to the neighbor's place and there was 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:41.560 a living room packed with people and my brother and I, 0:07:41.600 --> 0:07:43.680 you know, I was nine, my brother was eleven, and 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:46.080 we were, you know, on a on a sofa. We 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:48.080 were like on the back of it up again, with 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:51.880 our backs against the wall, watching it. And I couldn't believe. 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:55.680 I guess I was just in awe struck wonder at 0:07:55.720 --> 0:07:59.880 what I was actually seeing, that this is this is possible. 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:03.960 And I remember that same week going outside and standing 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:06.440 on the shore and looking up at the moon in 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:09.200 the sky and trying to link those two events in 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:12.960 my mind, and a lot of people, as you say, 0:08:13.000 --> 0:08:15.440 it was the most viewed event in human history at 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:18.440 that time, something like one third of everybody on Earth 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:21.040 was following along with Neil and Buzz and Mike, you know, 0:08:21.280 --> 0:08:25.240 which is crazy, just because it was the embodiment of 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:28.400 human dreams and we've been wondering about the Moon forever 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:32.840 and a lot of people, I think dreamed about being 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:37.080 an astronaut, or hoped to be an astronaut, or wanted 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:40.040 to be an astronaut, and those are important first steps, 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:43.880 but the actual critical step is to decide to be 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:47.840 an astronaut, and that's an entirely different thing. I hope 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:51.760 to be an Olympic athlete, but I've never decided to 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:54.079 be one, and I'm never going to be one, because 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:57.720 all I've got going is hope. But if I truly 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:02.360 decided to be an athlete, even at this stage, then 0:09:02.400 --> 0:09:04.920 it's still possible. There are some Olympic events that don't 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:07.440 require the fitness of an eighteen year old, you know. 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:10.480 There are some that are just like hand eye skills, yeah, 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:14.480 archery or something, and so it's not impossible. It's probably 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:18.200 beyond my ability. But when I was nine, just turning ten, 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:21.000 I thought, I'm going to grow up to be something. 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:24.360 Why don't I grow up to be that? That's the 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:27.480 coolest thing going on that I can possibly imagine. 0:09:27.480 --> 0:09:27.560 It. 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:29.560 Even to think about it gets my heart going, So 0:09:29.640 --> 0:09:33.040 I want to do that. So then if I decide 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:36.080 to be an astronaut, then I realize what DoD Neil 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:38.760 and Mike and Buzz do that I don't know how 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:40.800 to do yet, and I need to start learning how 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:44.600 to do those things. So they they train underwater for spacewalks, 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:46.240 I need to learn to swim. I need to learn 0:09:46.240 --> 0:09:51.880 to scuba dive. They understand orbital mechanics and control theory. 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:55.319 I need to go to university and study something complicated, 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:57.640 so I need to do well in middle school and 0:09:57.720 --> 0:10:01.719 high school. They fly in space, so I need to 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:04.360 learn to fly. So as soon as I turned thirteen, 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:06.360 I'm going to join the air Cadets and learn about 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:09.880 meteorology and airmanship and then eventually learn to fly gliders 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:14.920 and powered airplanes. And I never, I never once counted 0:10:15.480 --> 0:10:19.400 on being an astronaut, but I used the lure and 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:23.080 the possibility of being an astronaut in order to help 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:25.720 make all the little decisions of what I ought to 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:29.240 do next in life. And I found it a wonderful help, 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:32.520 because if you don't know what you're dreaming of being. 0:10:33.559 --> 0:10:36.280 Then how do you choose what to do next? Is 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:39.920 your life just the titillation of your nerve endings or 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:43.400 is there anything beyond that? And so I was lucky 0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:46.199 enough at that early age to be hugely inspired by 0:10:46.240 --> 0:10:48.880 what other people had done, enough to use it to 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:52.040 then guide the decisions for the rest of my life. 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:54.560 Chris Headfeld is my guest today. He will be an 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:57.439 Adelaine on July third, and I know we won't be 0:10:57.520 --> 0:11:01.240 able to completely satisfy your curiosity, but he will July 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:04.120 the third at the Convention Center. Chris Hadfield's Journey to 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:07.400 the Cosmos back shortly. Folks talking to Chris Hadfield on 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:13.120 conversations today, if you just tuned in a legendary astronaut, author, musician, 0:11:13.760 --> 0:11:15.600 He'll be an Adelaide on July the third at the 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:19.480 Convention Center. But if you just tuned in, he watched 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:22.480 Lea Armstrong and buzzolden Land on the Moon, is inspired 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:25.360 to be that and to do that, and decides to 0:11:25.360 --> 0:11:28.680 be an astronaut. But you must have been a smart kid, 0:11:28.920 --> 0:11:31.079 You must have been instinctively you know what I mean 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:34.640 by that. We speak to these people who've got genius intellect, 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:39.160 but they breezed through school. Did you breathe through school? 0:11:40.360 --> 0:11:43.680 I'm Canadian and I went to a good school system. 0:11:43.720 --> 0:11:45.800 I'm lucky to have grown up in a country with 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:50.080 a good, pretty much universal school system. And what we 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:55.160 did when I was about second grade, third grade, they 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:58.280 tried to identify the kids that were doing really well 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:01.360 in school and maybe allow them to advance a grade 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:05.280 rather than spend one more year slogging through grade three 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:07.680 or third grade or whatever. And so they allowed me 0:12:07.800 --> 0:12:12.880 to do grade three and four in one year. And 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:15.640 they also went around to the schools where the kids 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:18.280 were doing well, and they gave them aptitude tests and 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:21.800 IQ tests and such. And they took even though I 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:23.480 lived on a farm kind of out in the middle 0:12:23.520 --> 0:12:27.160 of nowhere, they thought, let's put together a thing, and 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:30.640 they called it an enrichment program, sort of an experimental program. 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:33.880 And this poor school bus driver had to drive to 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:37.040 all of these remote addresses where the kids had done 0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:39.240 well on an IQ test and pick us up individually 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:41.920 and drive us for two hours each day each way 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:46.120 to get to this school where and now they got 0:12:46.120 --> 0:12:47.680 this room full of kids who can do well on 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:50.280 an IQ test and We had the same teacher for 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:54.160 multiple years, and we didn't study reading and writing and arithmetic. 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:58.320 We did puzzles and we memorized Robert's service poems, and 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:01.360 we played the stock market, and we went on field 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:06.680 trips and it was pretty unusual education for grades five, six, 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:12.280 and seven. And yeah, I never It wasn't until school 0:13:12.320 --> 0:13:17.120 got very complicated, you know, in postgraduate university that I 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:22.600 really had to work hard. Most schooling came relatively straightforward 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:25.679 to me, and so I didn't develop very good study habits. 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:26.480 You know, if it. 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:30.040 Comes easily, then you don't You don't really know how 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:33.360 to build a brick wall if you don't know how 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:36.400 to lay each individual brick along the way. And I 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:38.720 really had to work hard when I got to mechanical 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:43.600 engineering at university and realized I can't just intuitively fake 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:45.800 this and pick it up. I've got to actually learn 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:49.439 how to learn. And that really stood me in good stead. 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:54.280 Then when I did postgraduate degrees and became a test pilot, 0:13:54.320 --> 0:13:57.080 which was one of the most academically complicated years of 0:13:57.120 --> 0:13:59.319 my life, and then the twenty one years I served 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:02.280 as at ASTRONA. So yeah, to be an astronaut you 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:06.160 need a healthy body. You need a good, active, curious mind, 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:10.160 a burning desire, and then a work ethic that that 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:13.000 will keep you happily motivated for decades. 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:16.640 You do more than talk at these functions, don't you. 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:21.240 You've got brniand audio visual obviously, photography is a passion 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:24.120 of yours, and i'd imagine you do that. Well, you 0:14:24.160 --> 0:14:28.880 play guitar and see, yeah, which which we'll get to it, 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:30.520 we'll get we'll get to that in a minute. But 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:33.880 so all the way through you go and fly in 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:36.000 the American the American Navy. 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:38.240 Yeah, I was on exchange. I was posted as a 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:41.400 military where posted to go fly on exchange with Yeah, 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:43.960 So I was a test pilot with the United States 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:46.800 Air Force and I did an exchange tour as a 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:49.360 test pilot with the United States Navy, even though I 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:52.480 was a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force. And 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:55.080 then after all that, I got selected by the Canadian 0:14:55.160 --> 0:14:59.400 Space Agency and then they posted me, uh detailed me 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:02.960 maybe as right word to NASA, and I worked as 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:06.080 a Canadian but within the NASA Astronaut Corps for twenty 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:06.640 one years. 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:10.200 Tell us about that your famous for accepting a Russian 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:15.640 BOMBA when you're doing the no red vision did I did. 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:20.960 Australia and Canada both fly F eighteens, and I was 0:15:21.320 --> 0:15:25.040 one of the very first Canadian F eighteen pilots. When 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:28.600 the airplanes were just coming off the assembly line, I 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:31.720 would get into an airplane that had seven hours on it, 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:34.840 you know, the airplane had just done one acceptance flight, 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:36.920 it had flown to Cold Lake, Alberta. And then I 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:40.200 was climbing into fly it. So very lucky brand new airplanes. 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:45.120 And the first deployment or role that I had with 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:48.440 the Royal Canadian Air Force was as a combat fighter 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:52.160 pilot during the Cold War, and at the time, the 0:15:52.240 --> 0:15:59.640 Soviets were practicing attacks on North America and they had 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:04.640 these big heavy bombers that are called Bear bombers. They 0:16:04.640 --> 0:16:07.320 had various models of them, some for anti submarine but 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:10.400 some of them were for releasing cruise missiles and they 0:16:10.400 --> 0:16:13.640 could carry fifteen or sixteen cruise missiles in the belly 0:16:13.680 --> 0:16:18.320 of these bombers. And so I would be sleeping in 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:22.240 the quick reaction facility with my jet in the room 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:25.240 next to me, plugged in and alive, and the horn 0:16:25.280 --> 0:16:27.040 would go off in the middle of the night. A 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:30.000 big blaring clackson on the wall, and you would leap 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:32.880 out of bed from sound to sleep, throw on your 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:35.920 flight suit in your g suit, race climb up the ladder, 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:38.960 jump into the airplane, be doing up your straps and 0:16:39.080 --> 0:16:43.480 starting the engine simultaneously to be airborne twelve minutes after 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:45.760 the alarm had got off. You had to be airborne 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:49.200 within twelve minutes. So you imagine tonight when you go 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:51.840 to bed at three o'clock in the morning, if your 0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:54.880 fire alarm went and you had to be actually taking 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:57.560 off the ground in your at eighteen twelve minutes after 0:16:57.640 --> 0:17:01.280 waking up, and then race out over the Atlantic and 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:04.639 intercept the Soviet bombers before they could get to the 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:05.360 line where. 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:06.760 They could release their cruise missiles. 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:09.520 And normally they were just like on their way down 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:12.120 to Cuba, and they were just taking a shortcut through 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:17.600 Canadian airspace, so normally it wasn't actually a big threat. 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:21.000 But when the horn went off, you don't know, and 0:17:21.040 --> 0:17:24.800 you're a fully armed F eighteen with two heat seeking 0:17:24.840 --> 0:17:27.480 missiles and two radar seeking missiles and a nose full 0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:31.320 of bullets, and so it's deadly serious. And I did 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:34.040 that eight different times. I did the very first intercept 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:44.040 of Soviet bombers with at F eighteen, and it was fascinating, challenging, exciting, daunting, 0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:46.800 a little bit nerve wracking because it was the very 0:17:46.800 --> 0:17:51.480 first time, but this amazing feeling of getting closer and closer, 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:54.240 coming up from behind, pulling up on the wingtip of 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:59.320 this huge lumbering bomber with big counter rotating propellers, roaring. 0:17:59.400 --> 0:18:02.640 You could hear it through the glass of my cockpit 0:18:02.720 --> 0:18:06.360 and the and my my helmet itself, this big throbbing roar, 0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:10.240 this huge bomber, and trying to figure out why are 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:12.520 they here today and what is their real purpose? And 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:14.360 trying to look through the windows and see what there 0:18:14.840 --> 0:18:15.239 was up to. 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:17.480 Did you speak can you speak to them? You know? 0:18:18.040 --> 0:18:19.040 Differenties. 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:22.880 However, one of my intercepts was on Christmas Eve and 0:18:22.920 --> 0:18:26.160 we were scrambled on Christmas Eve, raced out over the Atlantic, 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:29.119 flew on their wing, and as we peeled off, they 0:18:29.160 --> 0:18:31.480 were continuing south, and so we handed off to some 0:18:31.560 --> 0:18:34.920 American interceptors that were coming up. As we peeled off 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:39.840 on our radio frequency, we heard many Christmas so like 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:42.560 they knew what frequency they were on we were on, 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:45.600 and I didn't speak Russia at the time. I since 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:48.200 lived in Russia for about five years. I was NASA's 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:51.480 director in Russia, and I a director of operations in 0:18:51.560 --> 0:18:53.680 Russia and I and I was the pilot of a 0:18:53.760 --> 0:18:56.920 Russian spaceship. So I learned to speak Russian reasonably well. 0:18:57.160 --> 0:18:57.640 But at the. 0:18:57.600 --> 0:19:00.320 Time I didn't, you know, I didn't speak any and 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:03.480 so it was quite It made me laugh to hear 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:07.280 Merry Christmas with a thick Russian accent over my radio frequency. 0:19:07.640 --> 0:19:11.840 Chris Hadfield is my guest, folks, legendary Canadian astronaut. He 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:15.840 will be at the convention Center on Chris Hadfield's Journey 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:18.960 to the Cosmos. Tickets at ticket Tech. I'm sure you'll 0:19:18.960 --> 0:19:22.200 be entertained. We'll be back shortly. Welcome back. Everybody's talking 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:26.440 to Chris Hadfield on conversations today. He's a retired astronautic 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:30.520 in space. He's worked in space, He's played guitar in space. 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:34.400 He'll be at the Adelaide Convention Center on July the third. 0:19:35.160 --> 0:19:38.760 You get accepted into the obviously the astronaut program in 0:19:38.800 --> 0:19:41.280 the Canadian wonder how do you actually get the gig 0:19:41.320 --> 0:19:46.320 of commanding a space shuttle on a trip to the 0:19:46.680 --> 0:19:49.840 International Space Station. How does that work out? How do 0:19:49.880 --> 0:19:50.359 you do that? 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:54.680 It's a long road ho for sure, and a lot 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:59.280 of a lot of luck needed, but mostly a lot 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:05.080 of hard work when you well, when the application process 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:07.320 went out in Canada, coast to coast, there were five 0:20:07.440 --> 0:20:10.560 three hundred and thirty people applied and we didn't know 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:12.639 how many they would they would accept, and it was 0:20:12.680 --> 0:20:14.800 going to be a six month selection process. But I 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:17.880 went through each of the wickets and it was nerve wracking, 0:20:18.520 --> 0:20:20.800 but eventually they chose four of us out of. 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:22.480 Fifty three hundred and. 0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:27.120 So of the four of us, I was immediately sent 0:20:27.160 --> 0:20:30.400 down to start training with NASA because I had an 0:20:30.400 --> 0:20:36.399 international operational flying background. And then I started training with 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:41.280 NASA and had a year of astronaut candidate training. It's 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:44.600 just sort of the basics. You know, orbital mechanics, how 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:47.679 space shuttles work, how space stations work, how all of 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:51.640 these things, the fundamental skills that you need. And then 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:56.040 once you've graduated from the astronaut candidate phase, then you 0:20:56.280 --> 0:20:59.520 are eligible to start doing various work within the office 0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:03.560 and your eligible for flight assignment. And I worked various jobs. 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:07.639 I worked at in Florida getting Cruise ready to launch 0:21:07.640 --> 0:21:11.199 and welcoming Cruise when they came back. But eventually I 0:21:11.240 --> 0:21:15.560 got called into the Chief Astronaut's office and in the 0:21:15.600 --> 0:21:19.080 corner of the building that the astronaut program is in 0:21:19.600 --> 0:21:22.960 and telling me that I'd been selected for a Space 0:21:22.960 --> 0:21:25.240 Shuttle flight and we were going to go help build 0:21:25.280 --> 0:21:26.879 the Russian space station Mir. 0:21:27.400 --> 0:21:28.560 And so now. 0:21:28.320 --> 0:21:31.480 There's well, I forget what it was sixteen months of 0:21:31.640 --> 0:21:34.840 intense training seven days a week for the next sixteen 0:21:34.880 --> 0:21:39.119 months to get ready to go and help build Mir, 0:21:39.640 --> 0:21:43.240 their space station. So there I am going to be 0:21:43.359 --> 0:21:47.920 operating the Canadian arm to attach on board the American 0:21:47.960 --> 0:21:52.240 Shuttle to attach a huge new Russian section to the 0:21:52.320 --> 0:21:55.800 Russian space station Mir, and on all the training that 0:21:55.880 --> 0:21:59.680 goes along with that, studying Russian language, I'm traveling to 0:21:59.760 --> 0:22:05.320 rush to understand the crop, complex docking systems, just endless, 0:22:05.480 --> 0:22:09.400 endless work, all focused on the November day when we're 0:22:09.440 --> 0:22:12.399 going to be on board Space Shuttle Atlantis and launch. 0:22:12.760 --> 0:22:15.000 So it's and it. 0:22:15.040 --> 0:22:20.920