Chris Hadfield readjusts to 'earthling' life

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield speaks with CBC's Kim Brunhuber about getting used to life on Earth after 5 months in outer space.


Canada's space ambassador, Chris Hadfield, is still readapting to life on this planet after spending 146 days in zero gravity as commander of the International Space Station. For now, though, he's taking his homecoming one step at a time.

"Just learning to walk — that's enough," Hadfield said of the "bizarre" experience of being back on Earth after five months in outer space.

How Chris Hadfield turned earthlings on to space
"Just holding my head up is a bizarre new experience. I haven't had to hold my head on top of my neck for five months. I've been living in a cave. I haven't had the sun in my skin for five months," he told CBC News via Skype from the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Tx.

"[I'm] just trying to readapt myself and get myself back to being an earthling again after what was just a magnificient human experience," he added.

The Canadian astronaut with a deft touch at social media also spoke about his newfound Twitter fame since his mission as part of the crew of Expedition 35 began last December.

'Learning to walk'
Hadfield, who now has nearly a million followers on Twitter, said the huge social-media interest generated by his posts "took on a life of its own."

"As soon as I started taking pictures of the world in real time, showing people the brushfires going on in the Outback of Australia or Mount Etna erupting or just the city lights of a big city, it immediately touched this huge internationally resonating chord that social media allowed to feed back to me," he said.

As for his thoughts on the future of the Canadian Space Agency, which faces budget cuts and sweeping changes to the program, Hadfield said the outlook still looks promising, noting that having a Canadian command the ISS is an achievement that he knows other young Canadians aspire for some day.

"That's been my job for the last 21 years as an astronaut is to help us get to this stage and keep the doors open for the future," he said.

For the time being, though, he's focusing on his personal physical rehabilitation after his muscles atrophied from underuse.

"I'm just learning to walk. Really, truly, I'm learning to walk again," he said. "It's difficult."

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Closed Caption:

it is 144 days aboard the International
Space Station Chris Hatfield captivated
us in 140 characters
he brought we saw from up there to
nearly a million followers down here and
the tweeting hasn't stopped even as he's
poked and prodded with tests that field
is keeping us all up to date last night
he posted another of the thousands of
photos he took aboard the ISS this one
of the moon rising and ever the science
advocate today he shared this group shot
with researchers from a Canadian
university fields prolific use of
Twitter just adds to the international
attention he's getting I reached him in
Houston earlier today asking how he was
dealing with this newfound celebrity
status
yeah it's pretty crazy
no just having back to earth is
overloading enough just just holding my
head up is a bizarre new experience you
know I haven't had to hold my head on
top of my neck for five months I've been
living in a in a cave diving at the Sun
on my skin for five months just learning
to walk you know that's enough and get
on top of that of course there were so
many things happened over the last five
months
it really piqued interest right around
the world
the perspectives that we have up there
the things that are possible when you
leave Earth of the ways you can see the
planet
it's really cost what i think is a great
interest in the capability that we built
and so I'm just trying to deal with it
try to prioritize it trying to answer
the most pressing questions and and but
also trying to read out myself and get
myself back to being an Earthling again
after what was really just a magnificent
human experience
now you've been described as the best
space sales in this country has ever
seen and you showed such a death touch
in your use of social media
how much of that was a plan strategy and
how much was spontaneous and took on a
life of its own
well it was almost entirely a life of
its own
I wasn't even sure what the connectivity
was going to be from station we
nASA has built some new and pretty
impressive
linking computer kind of capabilities on
board but I wasn't really sure how good
it would be so I sort of launched with
some hopes and ideas and then a
half-baked plan and talk to my son
saying hey Evan maybe you could retweet
some stuff for me if I can't retweet
about myself
he said ok dad yeah sure i'll do that
but as soon as i started taking pictures
of the world and and real-time showing
people that you know that brush fires
that we're going on in the other Bank of
Australia or mount and I erupting or
just the city lights of the big city
it immediately touch such this huge
internationally resonate in court that
social media allowed to feed back to me
that we just started to recognize right
off that this is this video system means
what this means is new and it allows
people to maybe participate and see the
world through a new lands or at least
from a new perspective and a very much
grew like Topsy it grew on its own and
then the canadian space agency
I think in 246 days own space they
produce 246 videos of the things we were
doing up there are answering the
questions of a national science
competition of the almost a million kids
singing the same song simultaneously
coast to coast
so in almost all the preparation work
we've done through the agency and then
some of the real-time reaction of social
media
it was just amazing how many folks we
touched and got to help see the world
maybe a little differently and see some
of this amazing capability that we built
now there's been lots of criticism on
the csa over the last few years for
lacking a long-term plan for space
government review said we've been
falling behind other countries now the
agency's facing budget cuts and possibly
sweeping changes to the program
what impact will those have you think
why I can't predict the future anybody
any better than anyone else
we have a very good man as president the
space agency right now seeing Sheila
Clarys experienced a good engineer but
also very good leader and a smart man
and but you need to look a little
further than just what's in the news
this week of course you need to
look at the other space agencies of the
world you need to look at the economic
situation worldwide
it all has to be balanced but you also
have to look back a little bit
I mean canada pulled out of the space
station program right after I was hired
as an astronaut
we were we were out of the program we
weren't even going to participate the
space station program only got approved
by one vote
back in the early nineties in the
American political system
it always fluctuates we had the Columbia
accident in 2003 where we were right on
the cusp of not building station never
flying another space shuttle
we've done done with huge tragedy we've
dealt with great technical complexity
and we've dealt with the the regular
political cycle that is normal in every
democracy and you can despair
anytime you want it's easy there's
always lots of reasons to to give up but
we don't
and in meanwhile the space station is up
there running a hundred and thirty
experiment simultaneously with a crew of
six
we did spacewalks to fix a one of the
problems that cropped up it's as healthy
as it's ever been
canadian experiments running on board
canada got to the point in our 50 years
in space that now a Canadian has been
trusted to command the International
Space Station
we have two Canadian astronauts that are
becoming extremely experienced ready to
fly
decent jacket Jeremy handsome and i
think we are all generation of young
Canadians that are pretty inspired but
what it does
so yes by no means easy but meanwhile
we're doing some pretty magnificent
things and it has a lot of promise and
that's what my job for the last 21 years
as an astronaut is to help us get to
this stage and keep the door and keep
the doors open for the future
now you mentioned him the CSA is headed
by an interim president Steve McClean
suddenly stepped down as president some
have suggested you would be a natural
choice for his position
have you been approached would you be
interested you think nobody's asked me
but it's way too soon but i'm just
learning to walk
I really truly learning to walk again
it's difficult to create application
process takes months to get my bone
density back to get my muscle
all of the fine twitch fibers everything
back the way
was it is a matter of months and plus
there's all the medical testing to get
all of the information from this this
big lab rat here to get all of the data
that we can have been working with
University of Waterloo and other
companies to all the experiments that
they ran and then of course all the
technical debriefings i have tactical
briefings here in Houston over in Russia
at the canadian space agency in Montreal
there's all of that going on and
everything president is an interim
president of course no one's president
for life or something so every president
serves their term and does good work and
that's what the president we have right
now is doing the same thing so I I you
know it's way too soon to be asking that
question or four to be posing anything
like that to me
I'm just doing my best to deal with
what's going on right now and see what
the future brings the fair enough right
so what's next then next for me is rehab
physiotherapy and that's what i'm doing
and that's what I'm focusing on we have
to wait of course we have to write a
tremendous amount of of summaries and
reports and lessons learned and and
bring the most that we can have our
experience on board and that's going to
be taking up all my time for quite a
while here just getting the most out of
this experience I know that i am going
to be in ottawa on Canada Day and I'm
really looking forward to that will sort
of be
I think I'll be fully or mostly
recovered by then and then also in the
Grand Marshal of the country stampede
and it'll be nice to see Canada in on
the surface again in those two locations
fairly shortly but for now it's a pretty
focused and busy and and painful life
rain here just getting back to being an
earthly all right well so many Canadians
looking forward to meeting you in person
thanks so much Chris Hatfield from the
johnson space center in houston texas
my pleasure and really have to talk with
you as well