August 29 – Happy Birthday, Chris Hadfield!

Posted on August 29, 2016

He's one of the most famous astronauts, ever.

And it's not because he was the first to circle this or the first to step on that.

Instead, it's because he has reached out so well, so often, to all of us non-astronauts, helping to spark interest in some and answer questions for others, helping to excite and educate and even entertain!

Actually, Chris Hadfield was a first: He was the first Canadian astronaut to walk in space.

Hadfield flew in two space shuttle missions and served as commander of the International Space Station.

He was in space 165 days (altogether), including a mission that was almost five months long.

He was famous for being “savvy” about social media. He has more than 1,500,000 Twitter followers; he created one of the top Reddit AMA threads of all time; he has a popular Tumblr blog and loads of followers on Facebook and Google+; he created YouTube videos that have been viewed by tens of millions of people!

Not-so-social media is no stranger to Hadfield, either. His easy-to-read autobiography is called An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me about Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything. His interviews have been published in magazines – he's even made the cover! – and he's been interviewed on TV and radio as well.

Now retired, Hadfield had a 35-year career as a military pilot and an astronaut. Now he gets to do fun Earthly things like speak to audiences and throw out the ceremonial first pitch in a Major League Baseball game.

 Here are a few fun videos to get your Hadfield on:

• Wringing Out a Washcloth in Space
  
• How to Brush Your Teeth in Space 

• Cool animated lyric video for “Feet Up” 

• Chris's Kitchen – Sandwiches in Space 

• “Is Somebody Singing?” – a music video with spacefaring Chris Hadfield and Earthbound Barenaked Ladies and an choir

• “What I learned from going blind in space”

• This is the biggie: “Space Oddity,” made famous first by dearly departed musician David Bowie. Be sure to watch the coming-back-to-Earth final shot!

"Space Oddity" was really, truly recorded on the ISS,
and all the zero-gravity shots like the one below
really were 0-G. No special effects on THIS music video!

Also on this date:

More Herbs, Less Salt Day

Slovakia's National Uprising Day

According to Hoyle Day

Nut Spas in Russia

Anniversary of a phone call from space to ocean depths

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

• August holidays
• August birthdays
• Historical anniversaries in August

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

• September holidays
• September birthdays
• Historical anniversaries in September

April 25 – Happy Birthday, Frank De Winne

Posted on April 25, 2014

For many years, the only astronauts in the world were either American or Russian.

And the Russian astronauts weren't even called “astronauts” – they were cosmonauts.

But these days, with the International Space Station orbiting the Earth, available for experiments, 35 countries have sent up astronauts into space. This includes astronauts working for ESA, the European Space Agency...and those astronauts include two from Belgium...and the second of those two Belgian astronauts is today's birthday boy!

Born in Ghent, Belgium (in the northern, Flemish region of Belgium), on this date in 1961, Frank De Winne became the first ESA astronaut to command a space mission. He's been to space twice. During his 2002 mission, which lasted about 12 days, De Winne was able to carry out 23 different experiments. The second mission is the one that De Winne commanded; in 2009, De Winne and five other astro/cosmonauts went to the ISS for 186 days. It was the 21st long-duration mission.

De Winne is currently the Head of the ESA's European Astronaut Centre in Cologne / Koln, Germany. This is where ESA astronauts are trained.

Did you know...?

• 
  Russia is currently the only nation capable of launching astronauts into orbit. Of course, the U.S. used to have this capability, but the last Space Shuttle was retired in 2011. Russia's Soyuz rocket is the most frequently used and most reliable launch vehicle in the world, so far. The first unmanned Soyuz mission was launched in 1966. In 1967 Soyuz 1 launched; both Soyuz 1 and Soyuz 11 had re-entry problems, and in total four cosmonauts died. However, Soyuz 2 through 10 and 12 through 66 were all successfully completed without fatalities.

• NASA (the U.S. space agency) is working on a new heavy-lift launch vehicle called Space Launch System.

• So far, seven people from the U.S., South Africa, the U.K., and Canada have become the first space tourists. They paid between 20 and 40 million dollars each for the pleasures of training hard, risking their lives, and floating in outer space, with the best worlds of the world!

This view of the world from the ISS also
shows a Soyuz vehicle docked, ready to
return to the Earth when needed. There is
at least one Soyuz docked at the ISS
 at all times, in case it is needed for emergency
evacuation.

(By the way, one of the American space tourists—and so far the only female space tourist—is from Iran, and another is from Hungary.)

Also on this date:

Peppercorn Day in Bermuda 

World Penguin Day

Anniversary of the first seeing-eye dog in the U.S.

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

• April holidays   
• April birthdays 
• Historical anniversaries in April

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

• May holidays 
• May birthdays 
• Historical anniversaries in May