An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything
Oct 2013 · Sold by Little, Brown
4.4star
87 reviews
Ebook
304
Pages
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About this ebook
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
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
Ratings and reviews
4.4
87 reviews
Yancy Eaton
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December 1, 2013
Not a bad book by any means, but I was expecting so much more. There wasn't a single profound line in the entire story.
Brent Richmond
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June 14, 2014
I learned more about how to live and approach life from Commander Hadfield through this book than from any other source including my own father or any religion. I feel like this should be required reading for anyone with a dream. I just wish this book had existed years ago.
2 people found this review helpful
Joseph Allen
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July 15, 2016
This book has been an amazing read. If you are interested in life in space, and all things space. Then this book is for you
2 people found this review helpful
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.
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.
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