Chris Hadfield is one of the most experienced astronauts in the world, been part of 3 space missions, 2 space walks and has lived in the space for almost 6 months. That’s some achievement to write on your resume. But sadly he recently retired.
Christ talks about his experiences from space missions, trainings that run into years, moments and feelings about his launch, docking with International Space Station, space walks, living there, returning to earth and how each and every small detail in life becomes so critical. He even goes on to say that we are not super humans, astronauts are just too detailed about everything. He says ‘we constantly think what could be the next thing that would kill us!’.
The book is all about life lessons (for people on earth) with examples from his space missions as well as time spent training at NASA, helping other astronauts and assisting in other launches in the US as well as his life in Russia where he was also posted to assist combined space programs plus most of the launches happened from Kazakhstan.
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| Chris doing first space walk in 2001. It was a first for Canada as well. Look close, you can see the other astronaut in his visor! |
Patience is the key, as he explains how most of the astronauts spend many years together just training for million possibilities that can lead to disaster in space. There could be minor issues that we would not even blink once here on earth but in space it can kill you. That too in less than 10 seconds! From thousands of applications, few handful are selected to become astronauts and most of them don’t even go to space for many years together, sometimes even a decade!
Once while Chris was out in space (known as space walk, when you are in space but not inside any station, for a purpose) doing a repair work on the International Space Station he felt some liquid inside his helmet and it quickly got into his eyes and he was blinded. Such situations can be life threatening. He soon recovered but it was very scary at that moment. As it turned out it was a solution that he used to clean the visor of his helmet that mixed with water that leaked inside his space suit and created the havoc. Such a thing would be of tiny importance back on earth.
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| ISS is as big as a football field and at times visible to the naked eye from earth! |
Being prepared for things to come is another lesson that is important for all of us but we hardly care. We all should be much better prepared for things to come. Of course no one can predict future but we are always in a good position to guess the different eventualities in various phases of our lives but we do not really care to plan ahead. We should.
He even talks about how you should behave in our respective organisations at times of crisis. How you showcase your leadership qualities as and when needed and how your level headed understanding of various situations makes you a true leader. Leading by example on things that you can marvel on, is good, but at times you got to take a helicopter view and steer the show. Doing that too is also a good leadership and team manager quality.
‘Aiming to be zero’ is also a great new learning for me, from this book. Every time you should not aim to be a plus one (super excited, super smart). Sometimes aiming just to be what you are is important and just doing what you are supposed to be doing and not becoming a hindrance in someone’s path is that much more critical.
From the book, there’s a lot that you can learn about the International Space Station (ISS) managed by multiple countries. This giant man made product revolved round the earth at a mind boggling speed of 27600 km/hour. At this speed ISS orbits the earth every 90 minutes, hence witnesses sunset or sunrise every 45 minutes! Boy, that would be some sight from the ISS!
Chris plays excellent guitar and has now become a big celebrity singer. He recorded the first music video in space, inside the ISS – Space Oddity and it has already been viewed almost 20 million times! [the views are rising rapidly every minute].
Chris even recorded activities which may seem mundane on earth but very vital in space and uploaded them on YouTube for the curious world to see. No prizes for guessing that these videos have all gone viral and have been viewed multi million times. Things like how do you sleep, pee, eat, comb, cry, exercise etc. in space, are worth a watch.
If you search for ‘How to do ____ in space’ videos in YouTube, you will be able to see tons of them (I can spend all day watching them).
Chris even talks about interesting (but frightening) stories about entering back into atmosphere and landing on earth. Once a group of astronauts returning to earth got diverted due to a technical snag and when they tried getting out, saw themselves surrounded by fire. How you would have behaved in such a scenario?
What happens to your body after returning from space? Can you walk? Talk? Sleep? Read the book to know more!
Many more lessons and learning when you grab one. Available at Amazon. Happy Reading.