Queen's Welcomes Colonel Chris Hadfield, Canadian Space Agency Astronaut

Friday, January 14th, 2005, 11am - 12pm in the Atrium of Beamish-Munro Hall

The Faculty of Applied Science at Queen's University is proud to host a town hall meeting with Colonel Chris Hadfield, a civilian Canadian Space Agency Astronaut and Chief of Robotics for the NASA Astronaut Office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Col. Hadfield, the first Canadian to ever perform a spacewalk, will speak to students, faculty and staff about the space program and his experiences as a Canadian astronaut.

From the Canadian Space Agency website:
Born August 29, 1959, in Sarnia, and raised in Milton, Ontario, Colonel Chris Hadfield obtained his bachelor degree in mechanical engineering from the Royal Military College, Kingston, Ontario in 1982; conducted post-graduate research at the University of Waterloo, Ontario in 1982; and received a Master of Science in aviation systems at the University of Tennessee in 1992.

Chris Hadfield was assigned in August 1992 by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. There he addressed technical and safety issues for Shuttle Operations Development, contributed to the development of the glass shuttle cockpit, and supported shuttle launches at the Kennedy Space Center, in Florida. In addition, Hadfield was NASA's Chief CAPCOM, the voice of mission control to astronauts in orbit, for 25 space shuttle missions.

In November 1995 Hadfield served on NASA's second space shuttle mission to rendezvous and dock with the Russian Space Station Mir. During the flight, Hadfield flew as the first Canadian mission specialist, the first Canadian to operate the Canadarm in orbit, and the only Canadian to ever board Mir.

In April 2001 Hadfield served on the International Space Station (ISS) assembly Flight 6A. The crew of Space Shuttle Endeavour delivered and installed Canadarm2, the new Canadian-built robotic arm, as well as the Italian-made resupply module Raffaello. During the flight, Hadfield performed two spacewalks, which made him the first Canadian to ever leave a spacecraft and float free in space. In total, Hadfield spent 14 hours, 54 minutes outside-10 times around the world.

Read more about Colonel Chris Hadfield on the Canadian Space Agency website.