Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft is captured landing with Expedition 35 crew on board

The Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 35 crew.

On board was Commander Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), NASA Flight Engineer Tom Marshburn and Russian Flight Engineer Roman Romanenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos). 

The module landed safely in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, on Tuesday, May 14, 2013. 

Hadfield, Marshburn and Romanenko returned from five months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 34 and 35 crews.

Image Credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi

Canadian Astronaut and ISS Cmdr, Chris Hadfield Prepares to Return to Earth - Video

Canadian Astronaut and ISS Cmdr Hadfield’s charm and easy way with the camera are not the whole story behind his popularity. Long before setting off on this expedition to the space station, officials at the Canadian Space Agency were preparing him for fame.

Recognising his ability to explain complex issues easily, they gave him a video camera several years ago and asked him to begin practicing with it through his training.

Since he has been at the space station, a team back in Quebec have been dreaming up ideas for him to talk about, experiments for him to perform and writing scripts for the dozens of videos he has produced.

A professional editing team have polished the footage he has sent back, setting his antics to zany music and with fun graphics.

His final video dispatch from the Space Station (shown above) was a cover of the David Bowie song Space Oddity.

The music video, believed to be the first filmed in space, shows Cmdr Hadfield floating through various parts of the space station and playing his guitar along to a backing track.


Together, what Cmdr Hadfield and his team have achieved is to bring the space station alive for those back on Earth.

They have transformed the ISS from being a sprawling £84 billion laboratory where just an elite few who travel, into a place of wonderment – a playground where all the things we take for granted can be turned on their head.

Being able to share in just a part of that through Cmdr Hadfield’s videos has somehow helped to make the enormous building and running costs of the space station easier to swallow.

It has given the world the chance to be part of something very special.

Space Station Solar Array Damaged by Space debris or Meteoroid

A small object, possibly a meteoroid, has flown through a solar panel on the International Space Station, leaving a "bullet hole," Canadian astronaut and Expedition 35 commander Chris Hadfield has said.

"Bullet hole - a small stone from the universe went through our solar array. Glad it missed the hull," Hadfield wrote in his Twitter blog, revealing a photo of the damage he took during a recent EVA or "space walk" around the ISS.

However, experts believe the hole was probably caused by a random object, possibly space junk, which would not have been able to penetrate the layers of the station's hull.

Jim Scotti, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, said: "It's unlikely this was caused by a meteor, more likely a piece of man-made space debris in low Earth orbit."

Can you see the face in Eua Island, Tonga?

Can you see the face in Eua Island, Tonga?

Credit: NASA/CSA/Chris_Hadfield

Astronaut Chris Hadfield Celebrates Easter in Space

This Easter Sunday sunrise photo taken by Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield on the International Space Station shows the Great Lakes region of North America on March 31, 2013.

CREDIT: Canadian Space Agency/Chris Hadfield (Cmdr_Hadfield)

Children around the world aren't the only ones having an Easter egg hunt today. Astronauts in space will get Easter treats, too.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who commands the International Space Station, made sure that the Easter Bunny would make a special trip to the orbital lab today (March 31) just in time for an Easter celebration in space.

"Good Morning, Earth! A fine Easter Sunday morning to you from the crew of the International Space Station," Hadfield wrote in a post on Twitter, where he is chronicling his mission under the name @Cmdr_Hadfield.

Hadfield snapped a sunrise photo of Earth on Easter showing the sun glinting off the Great Lakes in North America this morning to mark the occasion. Then he revealed his Easter secret.

"Don't tell my crew, but I brought them Easter Eggs :)," Hadfield wrote as he posted a photo of his space Easter treats.

In the photo, six large plastic Easter eggs — each a different color —float inside a plastic bag while Hadfield presses a finger to his lips in a "Shh" gesture.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, Expedition 35 commander, shows the six Easter eggs he packed for his six-man International Space Station crew in a photo posted to Twitter on Easter Sunday, March 31, 2013.

CREDIT: Canadian Space Agency/Chris Hadfield (Cmdr_Hadfield)

Easter Sunday is a day off for the space station crew because it falls on a weekend. Hadfield is Canada's first commander of the station and took charge of the orbiting laboratory earlier in March 2013.

Hadfield's Expedition 35 crew includes himself, two Americans and three Russians. Three crewmembers, American astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin, just arrived at the station on Thursday (March 28).

View more of Chris Hadfields' photos from the ISS here

Hadfield and the Dragon - Image

Credit: Chris Hadfield / Canadian Space Agency

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield poses with SpaceX's Dragon capsule after it docked successfully with the International space station.

NASA Chris Hadfield ISS Image: The Italian Coast

Italian coast - like a diamond set in a ring.

Credit: Nasa

NASA Hadfield ISS Image: The Andros Islands

Andros Island, a lesser populated island with some great diving. At the bottom center you can see the island's runway.

Credit: NASA, Chris Hadfield

NASA Hadfield Image: The Beauty of the Bahamas

The beauty of the Bahamas is surreal; every blue that exists. Taken by Chris Hadfield on New Year's Day, 2013 from the Space Station.

CSA astronaut Chris Hadfield strums his guitar

Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield strums his guitar in the International Space Station's Cupola on Dec. 25, 2012.

Hadfield, a long-time member of an astronaut band called Max Q, later joined with the other five Expedition 34 crew members in a more spacious location to provide an assortment of Christmas carols for the public.

Whilst on the ISS, Cmdr. Hadfield finished off his own songwriting creation "Jewel in the night!"

Credit: Nasa

The Christmas Tune, Written By An Astronaut and Recorded in the ISS

Commander Chris Hadfield controls the Canadarm from the Space Shuttle Atlantic.

Photo: Col. Chris Hadfield

Commander Chris Hadfield, a Canadian astronaut, arrived at the International Space Station on December 19 for a planned five month stint aboard the orbiting platform.

The trip is Hadfield’s third and longest jaunt into space, and as a way to kill some downtime, says the Canadian Space Agency, Hadfield—an accomplished musician—has plans to record himself strumming and singing away.

The first fruits of that labour are now ready, says Rebecca Rosen, marking “the first original song written for and performed on the International Space Station."

Christmas may be over, but Hadfield’s first performance, an original song released on December 24 and dubbed “Jewel in the Night,” could be a good way to hold on the season’s spirit a little longer.

“Listen closely,” says Nancy Atkinson, “and you can hear the slight buzz of the [international space] station’s fans in the background.”

The song was not the first to ever be recorded in space, says Rosen, but rather the first to be written specifically for a zero-gravity performance.

Chris Hadfield in the ISS Food Pantry

Expedition 34, Nasa Astronaut, Chris Hadfield in the ISS Food Pantry on Space Station - Packets full of goodness, ready to rehydrate and eat.

Credit: NASA, ESA,

NASA Commander Chris Hadfield Experiences Virtual Reality EVA

Kate Lunau with her VR helmet. (Photo: Kate Lunau)

At NASA’s Johnson Space Center with astronaut Chris Hadfield, who is set to become the first Canadian commander of the International Space Station. 

In space, there’s no up or down—it’s a 360-degree world and that can be extremely disorienting, as Chris Hadfield learned shortly after getting suited up today at the NASA Johnson Space Center’s Virtual Reality lab, where he took a “spacewalk” with Jeremy Hansen, one of Canada’s newest astronauts.

Despite feeling mildly seasick as he roamed the outside of the International Space Station, it was a thrill.

At Johnson’s VR lab, astronauts practice for all sorts of situations they might encounter in real life on the ISS.

Canadian Chris Hadfield, who’ll assume command of the ISS in March, is working a lot in VR right now to master SAFER, a propulsive backpack that can save spacewalking astronauts should they drift away on an EVA.

In the VR lab, there’s a console filled with monitors where astronauts can operate a virtual Canadarm; and there’s another area where astronauts donning VR helmets can practice climbing all over the ISS to do a repair.

The view from inside the VR helmet. (Photo: Kate Lunau)

A software technician helped set Hadfield up: she put a massive helmet over his heads, and slipped wired gloves onto his hands.

As soon as the helmet was lowered over his eyes, Hadfield felt submerged in a different world. In front of him he could see the Space Station, and beyond it, the blue curve of Earth.

It was beautiful, but stomach churning: the perspective is nothing like on the ground. You can move in any direction, and this makes you feel immediately disoriented (no wonder even seasoned astronauts can get lost aboard the ISS).

The technician helped him figure out how to grab a railing and climb around; eventually he could see the other astronaut in his spacesuit in front of him, waving.

It’s easy to see why this type of practice is important for astronauts, especially when paired with work in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, a massive swimming pool containing a mockup of the ISS where they run through drills in their spacesuits but underwater in the NBL, there’s still an “up” and a “down.”

That wasn’t the case in VR, nor is it in space. When finally the helmet is taken off, his face was white as a sheet but even while battling nausea, the experience was so novel and exciting he didn’t want it to end.

Chris Hadfield said that the best part of the VR experience was when a technician 'fixed' him to the end of the Canadarm2 to really give me a view.