Chris A. Hadfield

A colonel in the Canadian Air Force, Chris Hadfield received the masters of science in aviation systems from the University of Tennessee Space Institute in 1992. He reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1992. In November 1995 he served as a mission specialist on STS-74—NASA’s second space shuttle mission to rendezvous and dock with the Russian space station Mir. During the eight-day flight, the crew aboard space shuttle Atlantis successfully attached a permanent docking module to Mir and transferred over two thousand pounds of food, water, and scientific supplies for use by the cosmonauts. Hadfield then became NASA’s chief CAPCOM, the voice of mission control to shuttles in orbit. He was chosen to fly on the 1999 STS-100, International Space Station assembly flight 6A, the primary purpose of which was to deliver and install the new Canadian robot arm (Space Station Remote Manipulator System), as well as an Italian-made resupply logistics module.