Cape Canaveral, Florida – The International Space Station’s first Canadian commander will return to Earth late today in what will be an emotional end for more than 1 million followers on Twitter, Facebook and other social media.
During his five-month tour on the space station, Sarnia native Chris Hadfield became a social media superstar, posting breathtaking images of Earth along with lyrical descriptions of his hand-selected locales. He also sent back videos detailing everyday life on the outpost.
“It will be a great day and a sad day when you touch down on earth! Thank you for your brilliance and for sharing your incredible journey with us!” Sara Knight-Rushton wrote this month on Hadfield’s Facebook wall.
“What will we do without you to provide such a unique perspective on our planet, which is such a small part of our universe â€1/8unbelievable!” added Lori N’Scott Earle. “We will miss those amazing pictures along with their equally captivating quips.”
An accomplished musician, Hadfield recorded and distributed the first original music produced on the station — he converted the Cupola observatory deck into an orbital recording studio.
And, strumming an acoustic guitar, Hadfield joined Ed Robertson of the alternative rock band Barenaked Ladies in the space-to-ground, live Canadian national network television premiere of a song the two wrote together: “I.S.S. (Is Somebody Singing).”
Hadfield, U.S. astronaut Thomas Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko are scheduled to depart the space station at 7:08 p.m. EDT, just two days after an emergency spacewalk to repair a coolant leak on the outpost. They will begin a fiery atmospheric re-entry at 9:37 p.m. Landing on the central steppes of Kazakhstan is scheduled at 10:31 p.m.
Three colleagues will remain on the outpost: Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin, and U.S. astronaut Chris Cassidy. Another three will launch from Kazakhstan on May 28 and dock at the station that night. They are Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, U.S. astronaut Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency. (AP)
