Canadian astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield Photo by Evan Boudreau.

Astronaut Hadfield gives students an out-of-this-world experience

By 
  • April 1, 2014

TORONTO - Despite having only played guitar for four years, Joseph Nariducci felt like a rock star for a few minutes as he shared the stage with a man who has actually lived among the real stars.

On March 31 Nariducci, a Grade 10 student at Toronto's St. Michael's College School, performed a rendition of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" at his school with Canadian astronaut Col. Chris Hadfield.

“It was incredible and it was a great honour,” said Nariducci. “I am very honoured to have been able to play with him.”

Hadfield, Canada's first man to walk in space, recently completed his third venture to space. During this time he became the first Canadian to command the International Space Station — a post he manned for five months in 2012-13.

Hadfield, who on July 3, 2013 retired from the Canadian Space Agency, visited St. Michael's to tell the student body about the challenges of being an astronaut.

What seemed to spark the most interest among the students, Nariducci included, was learning about the launch procedure.

“The way he was describing the launch procedure and how it feels to go up into outer space” was the most interesting part, said Nariducci. “I expected it to be hard and he described it really well.”

Keeping the lesson interesting, Hadfield used personal testimony and videos, as well as a volunteer to demonstrate how you sit — or lay really — during launch as he explained the dangerous procedure.

“There are 500 switches around you when you're launching and if you throw the wrong one you are dead,” he said.

Not only did Hadfield give the students the hard facts — for example being in orbit requires a speed of eight km per second which is the speed the initial rockets propel the ship during launch — but also some of the goofy rituals. One that drew laughter from the crowd is the Russian ritual started by the country's first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin. While venturing across the launch area in a van Gagarin told the driver to stop, he jumped out and immediately urinated on the right rear tire.

“Why not, he (was) about to go on a long trip and it is always a good idea to go to the bathroom first,” chuckled Hadfield.

Hadfield said this practical action has turned into a ritual for all astronauts who depart from Russia.

Hadfield himself took part in the ritual before piloting a Russian Soyuz to the International Space Station on Dec. 19, 2012. It was during this trip that he took over command of the space station.

But among the scientific facts and humour of Hadfield's address resided a secondary message — “the sky is not the limit.”  This message came through strongest while Hadfield recalled launching himself into the profession.

“I thought I am going to grow up to be something and I watched two guys walk on the moon when I was nine and I thought why don't I try to do that,” said Hadfield. “I didn't know how to do it, there were no Canadian astronauts at the time. I didn't know what was going to be involved or what skills I had to study but I figured the only way I can control it is to start turning myself into an astronaut.”

The inspirational nature of this message sunk in with Farank Bergin, St. Michael's physical education department head.

“He's a phenomenal role model,” said Bergin. “We have sports heroes, music heroes (and) even academic heroes but something like this is almost a combination of everything which is truly out of this world. For kids to see that, he said it best, anything is possible.”

Bergin, who also strummed his guitar with Hadfield and Nariducci, admitted to being a little starstruck by the experience.

“That was pretty awesome,” he said after stepping offstage. “It is a pretty big honour. It is not quite being in space but it is pretty close.”

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