This is a story about the coolest astronaut in human history.
If you haven’t heard of this man yet, his name is commander Chris Hadfield (53), who was the first Canadian to walk in space. Helped by his two sons, he harnessed the power of social media to give millions of people access to space, to the incredible views he was seeing and share basic scientific experiments like showing that you can’t cry in space.
He slowly turned into something like a space celebrity, amassing a huge crowd on Twitter, Facebook and Reddit while doing an IAmA.
A space recording
After someone coined “Space Oddity” on the Reddit thread, commander Hadfield tweeted three days ago:
With deference to the genius of David Bowie, here's Space Oddity, recorded on Station. A last glimpse of the World. http://t.co/DMnMc8qC7f
— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) May 12, 2013
Here’s the video in it’s full glory:
Summing it all up
- There was an astronaut in space doing a Reddit IAmA.
- He shared beautiful and unique views of the earth using social media.
- He had his two sons help him set up and manage his social media accounts and was very transparent about it.
- Using social media, he educated people about the effects and brutality of space.
- He sung Space Oddity in space and made a video of it.
I am overwhelmed. My inner geek, music lover and people admirer were all crying in trinity. Hats off to commander Hadfield!
PS: If you want to learn more about commander Hadfield check out this and this Guardian article.