Space Mountie Hadfield retires
|Published
File photo: Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield after the Russian Soyuz space capsule landed some 150km southeast of the town of Zhezkazgan in central Kazakhstan. File photo: Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield after the Russian Soyuz space capsule landed some 150km southeast of the town of Zhezkazgan in central Kazakhstan.
London - Major Chris Hadfield, the former commander of the International Space Station who captivated millions with his tweets, photos and orbital version of David Bowie's Space Oddity, has announced his retirement from the space programme.
“I'm making good on a promise I made my wife nearly 30 years ago, that yes, eventually, we would be moving back to Canada,” he told reporters at the Canadian Space Agency headquarters near Montreal.
Hadfield, 53, had been based with Nasa in Houston with his wife, Helene, for more than 20 years.
He first entered orbit in 1995 after serving as an air force test pilot. Helene, a chef and Hadfield's wife of 31 years, said. “We're always thinking about the next step, but really, at this point, all I know is anything Chris does is always an adventure,” she told Space.com. - The Independent