Watch the video above: Chris Hadfield on Global Edmonton’s Morning News
EDMONTON – Canada’s “Rocket Man” Chris Hadfield may have achieved rock star status after his five-month stint in space, but he’s not forgetting about the little people.
During an interview at Global Edmonton on Thursday, he says he decided early on in his 21-year career as an astronaut that he’d try his best to inspire young Canadians.
Since then, he’s connected with thousands of students, taking time to answer their questions and help get them interested in space.
READ MORE: Chris Hadfield Q&A with Edmonton students
“It’s so nice if you can give a kid an idea of something in the distance that could be something really interesting. Give them kind of a goal or motivation that helps them make decisions,” he said.
“Because people start to choose at eight or nine or 10 years old, you know – who am I going to be? What am I going to do?”
The 54-year-old’s own life-changing moment came when he was nine, watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon.
“I kind of decided, I’ve got to turn myself into an astronaut, so that when they do say ‘who wants to be an astronaut?’ I could stick my hand up higher than anybody else and go, ‘I think I have the qualifications that you want.'”
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With no “rule book,” or Canadian example, Hadfield set out to do what he thought would get him closer to his goal.
“I thought, ‘astronauts fly, so I’m going to become an air cadet and learn to fly. Astronauts have to know how to do stuff, so I’m going to go to university and study engineering.'”
He says he enjoyed every stop along the way to his eventual 144-day gig commanding the International Space Station.
READ MORE: A look at some notable Chris Hadfield moments in space
Having orbited our planet almost 2,500 times during the mission, the one thing he’d like people to take from his experience is the realization that we’re not as different as it sometimes seems.
“There’s a natural ‘us’ and ‘them,'” he explained. “After a while, whether you’ve consciously thought of it or not, the ‘them’ fades…you just start seeing ‘oh, there’s a bunch of us living down there.'”
Another take-away? Fight fear by visualizing what it is that you’re afraid of. Hadfield explain that in the video below.
WATCH: Chris Hadfield on Global Edmonton’s Early News
His book, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, offers a more compete look at his journey from childhood to space.
His next frontier includes teaching at the University of Waterloo, as well as getting re-settled in Canada. He doesn’t feel his “peak” is behind him, though.
“There’s a thousand experiences to have today, and a thousand tomorrow. And once in a while..someone will judge some as a peak, or someone will tell me, ‘that’s a valley.’ But really, it’s completely up to me how I evaluate the merit of each of the things that I’ve done in my life.”
Aside from commanding a space ship, he’s also grateful for some of his musical accomplishments.
Among them: getting to play guitar with The Guess Who, and writing a song with the Barenaked Ladies.
“To me all of those things are just wonderful experiences. And I’m hoping to have about 30 or 40 more years of that. We’ll see how it goes.”
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