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Chris Hadfield

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An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything Kindle Edition

by Chris Hadfield (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.6 8,439 ratings

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Travel 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

Print length

322 pages
Language

English
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Little, Brown and Company
Publication date

October 29, 2013
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11940 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

A Slate Staff Pick for Best Books 2013―-

"A very human glance into a rarified world.... The vacuum of space is unforgiving and brutal. Life on earth isn't easy, either. Mr. Hadfield has genuinely and refreshingly increased our understanding of how to thrive in both places."―The Wall Street Journal

"Hadfield is a genius, a man of science and technology and no first-timer to the universe."―New York Post

"A satisfying behind-the-scenes look at the life of an astronaut.... A page-turning memoir of life as a decorated astronaut."―Kirkus Reviews

"Houston, we have a superstar."―Washington Post

"This memoir is part fascinating view, part Boy Scout manual."―New York Times

"Hadfield proves himself to be not only a fierce explorer of the universe, but also a deeply thoughtful explorer of the human condition, capable of articulating those most universal of inquiries in simple yet profound language.... The book itself is absolutely spectacular."―Brain Pickings

"Lessons from his new book, AN ASTRONAUT'S GUIDE TO LIFE, are so inspiring that it's hard to decide which one to tell you about."―USA Today

"Our planet's one-man ambassador to the universe."―Gothamist

"Thoroughly engaging.... In a low-key style, he makes a persuasive case that the oft-derided Space Station is both a marvel of engineering and a triumph for science, and he paints the cartoon heroism of the NASA astronaut corps in a much more realistic, and yet in many ways even more admirable, light."―Corey S. Powell, American Scientist

"Hadfield is a good writer with an engaging style.... From his photos of Earth from space to his videos showing the daily grind of life on a 100-meter wide orbiting tin can, he is all about real life."―Slate

"Riveting, dramatic and intensely engrossing, Hadfield's engaging style as a writer puts you right alongside this almost absurdly compelling gentleman as he climbs the ladder from Canadian fighter pilot through two space shuttle missions and, ultimately, his serving as commander of the ISS."―The Huntington Beach Independent

"Hadfield takes readers on a fascinating and exciting journey while offering insightful-if somewhat unconventional -- wisdom applicable to everyday life here on Earth."―Bookpage

"His book is an autobiography as well as a lesson to the reader on what he's learned throughout his life and travels. And in his particular distillation of 'success,' he is wonderfully counterintuitive in his interpretation of common sense.... A startlingly intimate and warmhearted view of an arcane world, one which he makes plain even to those not educated in fields of scientific inquiry."―Ryan Downer, The California Aggie

"The book is more than just a compilation of intriguing stories and details about life in space....In addition to providing irresistible descriptions of his work, the book--which has been translated into 20 languages--also acts as a self-help guide, with Hadfield offering practical applications to what he has learned over the years."―Connie Ogle, Miami Herald --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

About the Author

Chris Hadfield, one of the world's most seasoned and accomplished astronauts, is the author of the #1 international bestseller An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth. The top graduate of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School in 1988 and the U.S. Navy Test Pilot of the Year in 1991, Hadfield was selected to be an astronaut in 1992. He was Chief CAPCOM at NASA for twenty-five shuttle missions and served as Director of Operations for NASA in Star City, Russia, from 2001 to 2003; Chief of Robotics for the NASA Astronaut Office in Houston from 2003 to 2006; and Chief of International Space Station Operations for the NASA Astronaut Office from 2006 to 2008.

Hadfield most recently served as Commander of the International Space Station, where, while conducting a record-setting number of scientific experiments and overseeing an emergency spacewalk, he gained worldwide acclaim for his breathtaking photographs and educational videos about life in space. His online videos, including a zero-gravity version of David Bowie's "Space Oddity," have collectively received more than fifty million views. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00DTUHIDA
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Little, Brown and Company; Illustrated edition (October 29, 2013)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 29, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 11940 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 322 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #150,263 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #53 in Astrophysics & Space Science (Kindle Store)
- #63 in Biographies of Scientists
- #319 in Scientist Biographies

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4.6 8,439 ratings

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Chris Hadfield

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CHRIS HADFIELD is one of the most seasoned and accomplished astronauts in the world. The top graduate of the U.S. Air Force test pilot school in 1988 and U.S. Navy test pilot of the year in 1991, Colonel Hadfield was CAPCOM for twenty-five Shuttle missions and NASA’s Director of Operations in Russia. Hadfield served as Commander of the International Space Station where, while conducting a record-setting number of scientific experiments and overseeing an emergency spacewalk, he gained worldwide acclaim for his breathtaking photographs and educational videos about life in space. His music video, a zero-gravity version of David Bowie's "Space Oddity," has nearly 50 million views, and his TED talk on fear has been viewed over 10 million times. He helped create and host the National Geographic miniseries One Strange Rock, with Will Smith, and has a MasterClass on exploration. Chris Hadfield's books An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, You Are Here and The Darkest Dark have been bestsellers all around the world.

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Marcia Z. Bookstein

what fun!

Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2023

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I bought and read this book many years ago and am still talking about it to people. His description of getting blasted into space in a tiny capsule with the cosmonauts made me feel like I was right there. (I would have asked for the diaper!) You don't think about stuff like that when thinking about space travel. Or what zero gravity can do to your body, going to the bathroom in the space station, or preparing to leave from Russia. Just writing about it now makes me feel especially grateful to be a terrestrial animal, feet on the ground! I highly recommend this book and am about to buy another copy for a friend.

One person found this helpful

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EM

Hustle porn

Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2021

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An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth is a solid memoir on Hadfield's ascent as an astronaut. Space travel and aviation is about managing risks.

Yet as an advice book, the takeaways are simplistic at best. Work hard. Stay focused. Be patient.

Hadfield should be grateful that his wife didn't pack up and leave with the kids after one too many training missions away from home. He concedes that he's benefited from millions of dollars of government training and a supporting cast of thousands. This contrasts with modern private sector employers who invest the bare minimum in their "human resources".

5 people found this helpful

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M. LaPlante

Hadfield's career is a feel good story for anyone who believes in the power of ...

Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2016

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In An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, former CSA astronaut Chris Hadfield shares a variety of tales from his extensive career both on and off the planet, as well as the personal philosophy that helped him through it all.

Hadfield is the kind of individual that you want as role model your children. His work ethic is exemplary, and he emphasizes the critical nature of ongoing personal education and development as key to his success. Don't determine your self worth based on where you end up, he says, but on the effort you will put in to get there. If something is worth doing, it is worth committing to and doing well, regardless of the payoff. Perhaps not revolutionary ideas in and of themselves, but backed by the life story of someone who has embraced these principles and embodied them. Hadfield's career is a feel good story for anyone who believes in the power of hard work and education.

While An Astronaut's Guide spends a lot of time on the author's attitudes and ethics, it's by no means a self help book. The text is also a candid biography, giving great insight into the years of development that went into building the career of a star (no pun intended) astronaut. Hadfield reminisces on his youth, his time as a military test pilot, and his many additional years training at NASA before ever reaching space. We learn how the intense commitment involved can affect personal relationships and family dynamics. It becomes clear that today's select few astronauts represent, in many ways, the pinnacle of humanity: it's a lifestyle that demands levels of intelligence, dedication, and both physical and mental training that very few of us could hope to successfully achieve.

Chris Hadfield first reached fame several years ago through a series of educational and entertaining social media postings made from the ISS. We learn that these were motivated by his love of the space program, and, with the help of his son back on Earth, he wanted to do his part to boost public awareness and interest. The videos became a hit and internet stardom followed. I'm the kind of person who finds any story about life beyond Earth hard to pass up, simply for the curiosity and wonder they evoke. From the vastness of the cosmos to the minutia of how to brush your teeth successfully in zero gravity, it's all fascinating stuff, and Hadfield, who flew on three separate occasions, brings these anecdotes in spades. The same attitude that lead him to educational social media carries through in his writing, and we're gifted with numerous stories that run the gamut from the profound and enlightening to the humorous. The author is consistently candid about the astronaut experience, and these sections proved particularly hard to put down.

All in all, it's difficult not to recommend this book. If you're already a fan of space travel, or the space program, you will receive a bevy of stories and insights from a man who spent decades at NASA and commanded the ISS. And if you aren't a space enthusiast yet, you might just be one by the end. But even without all of the fantastic anecdotes, Chris Hadfield is still an eminently likable and admirable personality with a lot of unique life experience to share. Worth reading whether you're an aspiring astronaut, or just aspiring to become a more enlightened human being.

11 people found this helpful

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ks227

Outstanding astronaut memoir

Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2013

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OK, I admit it - I'm something of a space junkie. As an engineer, I have been fascinated by accounts of the US space program during the 60s and the extremely fast pace of space technology development. On a more personal level I was less than two months old when STS-1 inaugurated the Shuttle era, and as a kindergartener I witnessed the Challenger disaster in my school classroom. I begged my parents to send me to Space Camp. As a child I dreamed of becoming an astronaut and going into space, but as I got older I realized that was unlikely to ever happen - that hasn't stopped me from having an interest in both manned and unmanned space exploration. I have my own DVD copies of From the Earth to the Moon , When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions and In the Shadow of the Moon , and have read several astronauts' memoirs including Forever Young: A Life of Adventure in Air and Space by John Young, The Last Man on the Moon by Gene Cernan, and Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13 by Jim Lovell and Jeremy Kluger. What is lacking thus far in the astronaut memoir genre is much in the way of writing from Shuttle-era astronauts.

Enter Chris Hadfield. He is everything you'd expect of a Canadian astronaut; a quietly competent team player and family man who wanted to become an astronaut from the age of 9 when he watched the first moon landing. In 21 years with the CSA/NASA, Hadfield was a mission specialist on two Shuttle flights and commanded the ISS before his retirement, and held a variety of positions within the astronaut office when not training for a mission. Commander Hadfield became perhaps the most social media-savvy astronaut ever, with a huge following on Twitter and Youtube. Our 3 year old still asks to look at Commander Hadfield's videos taken on the ISS, and loves what she calls "the space song" - Is Somebody Singing, the collaboration between Hadfield and the Barenaked Ladies, which was billed as the first song debuted from space.

An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth is an enjoyable read about Hadfield's early life, his years as a fighter pilot and test pilot, his selection in the Canadian Space Agency's second group of astronauts, and his training for three missions in space. The book is written in a conversational tone and does not shy away from the risks and rewards involved in being an astronaut and the stresses it sometimes placed on family life. It is a thoroughly enjoyable read and I recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about life as an astronaut during the Shuttle/ISS era.

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Cliente Amazon

Livro interessante

Reviewed in Brazil on January 28, 2021

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Comprei o livro pelo título e não me arrependi. Chris Hadfield escreve de forma engajante, mesclando lições de vida com sua carreira na NASA/CSA. Você vai aprender muito sobre a vida e desafios que profissionais da área passam.

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Sue-in-devon

Life changing! Everyone should read this book!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 22, 2022

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From the opening paragraph I was hooked and remained transfixed throughout this book.
… My only regret is that it had to end!
This is a completely fascinating life story told in such an engaging way that it becomes a gift for one’s own life!
Since first reading it in 2014 I have bought multiple copies for others, and have found that I often quote the concept of being a +1 that Chris Hadfield discussed in this book.
As an disabled artist who had the privilege of being asked to speak at NASA Houston (on ‘that’ stage, Ie that one sees press conferences and award ceremonies being delivered from!), had had discussions about filming a new aspect of the artwork in the neutral buoyancy lab and is now a flexwing pilot, the challenges of that journey have been extreme; particularly when finding a way through other’s preconceptions of what they consider ‘impossible’ in order to create a space were the imagery planned ‘becomes possible’.

Working underwater and then in the air has at times been life threatening. But since 2014, having read this book has made that journey distinctly easier through the insights it gives into how very much more extreme challenges can be!

Through Chris Hadflield demonstrating how persistence and resilience really can make the impossible possible and through being inspired by the grace, consideration and intelligence that comes across at every point in his writing, my life has been enhanced.

I picked this book up because of plans to create a triptych of imagery from underwater, up in the air and then out into space (with the unique ‘vehicle’ that I work with) so had developed an interest in all things space related; especially after having the privilege of meeting the team at Houston, standing looking down at a live mission control and visiting the Neutral Buoyancy Lab there.

I picked this book up for insights and information into that world and put it down changed for life!

One person found this helpful

Harshal

Phenomenal journey as an astronaut

Reviewed in India on May 28, 2022

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Reading the book makes us feel as if we have become astronaut. We feel the exhilaration and adventure reading Chris's memoir. Hats off to him for such a wonderful life and narrating it in a beautiful manner. Everyone should read it and remember the beauty of our Earth and how we should live here from an astronomer's point of view.

hannahla

LOOOOVE this book!

Reviewed in Spain on June 13, 2020

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I LOVE LOVE LOVE this book! Chris Hadfield's every decision to propel himself closer to his dream of being an astronaut is inspiring. I often cite this book as one of my favourites (I am fascinated by humans being/living in space) and it is one I reread when the mood takes me.

SanRoAK

Though space in a book...

Reviewed in Mexico on March 27, 2018

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Chris Handfield take you to an easy and amazing book to his experiences in space, it really shows me a new perspective to dream.
English is not my first language so this book helps me to practice and now some new things I did not consider an astronaut face.

Is a good book, one of my new favorites and it really makes a good time to read and learn.

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