An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for AnythingTravel to space and back with astronaut Chris Hadfield's "enthralling" bestseller as your eye-opening guide (Slate). Colonel Chris Hadfield has spent decades training as an astronaut and has logged nearly 4000 hours in space. During this time he has broken into a Space Station with a Swiss army knife, disposed of a live snake while piloting a plane, and been temporarily blinded while clinging to the exterior of an orbiting spacecraft. The secret to Col. Hadfield's success-and survival-is an unconventional philosophy he learned at NASA: prepare for the worst- and enjoy every moment of it. In An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, Col. Hadfield takes readers deep into his years of training and space exploration to show how to make the impossible possible. Through eye-opening, entertaining stories filled with the adrenaline of launch, the mesmerizing wonder of spacewalks, and the measured, calm responses mandated by crises, he explains how conventional wisdom can get in the way of achievement — and happiness. His own extraordinary education in space has taught him some counterintuitive lessons: don't visualize success, do care what others think, and always sweat the small stuff. You might never be able to build a robot, pilot a spacecraft, make a music video or perform basic surgery in zero gravity like Col. Hadfield. But his vivid and refreshing insights will teach you how to think like an astronaut, and will change, completely, the way you view life on Earth — especially your own. "Hadfield proves himself to be not only a fierce explorer of the universe, but also a deeply thoughtful explorer of the human condition." —Maria Popova, Brain Pickings |
From inside the book
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... we'd push ourselves accordingly—after we'd finished our chores. That we were responsible for the consequences of our own actions was just a given. One day in my early teens, I drove up a hedgerow with our tractor a little too ...
... we'd push ourselves accordingly—after we'd finished our chores. That we were responsible for the consequences of our own actions was just a given. One day in my early teens, I drove up a hedgerow with our tractor a little too ...
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... We'd hit a dead end. As I have discovered again and again, things are never as bad (or as good) as they seem at the time. In retrospect, the heartbreaking disaster may be revealed as a lucky twist of fate, and so it was with losing the ...
... We'd hit a dead end. As I have discovered again and again, things are never as bad (or as good) as they seem at the time. In retrospect, the heartbreaking disaster may be revealed as a lucky twist of fate, and so it was with losing the ...
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... we'd be spending many years there after I finished test pilot school—why not try to get a stint at Pax first? And yes, there was something else, too: we had become accustomed to warm winters. So I called my career manager (a military ...
... we'd be spending many years there after I finished test pilot school—why not try to get a stint at Pax first? And yes, there was something else, too: we had become accustomed to warm winters. So I called my career manager (a military ...
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... we'd been told that on a particular Saturday in May, all 20 of us would get a phone call between 1:00 and 3:00 p.m. to confirm whether we'd been selected or rejected. When that Saturday finally arrived, I decided the best thing to do to ...
... we'd been told that on a particular Saturday in May, all 20 of us would get a phone call between 1:00 and 3:00 p.m. to confirm whether we'd been selected or rejected. When that Saturday finally arrived, I decided the best thing to do to ...
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... we'd been warned to expect it. So I just keep “hawking it,” flipping through my tables and checklists and staring at the buttons and lights over my head, scanning the computers for signs of trouble, trying not to blink. The launch tower ...
... we'd been warned to expect it. So I just keep “hawking it,” flipping through my tables and checklists and staring at the buttons and lights over my head, scanning the computers for signs of trouble, trying not to blink. The launch tower ...
Contents
Have an Attitude | |
The Power of Negative Thinking | |
Sweat the Small Stuff | |
The Last People in the World | |
Whats the Next Thing That Could Kill | |
Tranquility Base Kazakhstan | |
Aim to Be a Zero | |
Life off Earth | |
practicalities and logistics of even more ambitious expeditions | |
Square Astronaut Round Hole | |
COMING DOWN TO EARTH | |
Photos | |
Acknowledgments | |
Reading Group Guide | |
Other editions - View all
An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About ... Chris Hadfield No preview available - 2015 |
Common terms and phrases
actually airlock astronaut Baikonur Canadarm2 Canadian capcom capsule Chris Cassidy Chris Hadfield commander cosmonauts couldn’t crew crewmates debrief didn’t docking Earth engines Evan everything experience feel felt fighter figure floating going to space gravity ground guitar happen hatch Helene helmet Houston inside International Space Station kids knew landing launch leak look minutes Mission Control module months move NASA NASA’s never orbit Pavel person planet pressure problem pull quarantine re-entry ready robotic rocket ship Roman Roscosmos Russian sense Shuttle simulator sleep sleep station Sokhol someone Soyuz space flight Space Oddity space program spaceship spacesuits spacewalk SpaceX Star City started stuff sure test pilot there’s things took turn undock vehicle wanted wasn’t we’d weightlessness what’s who’d who’s window you’re Yuri zero