Biography of Chris Hadfield

Chris Hadfield joins the Canadian Armed Forces.

He is named top pilot during basic flight training in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba.

Hadfield graduates from the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario, with an honours bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering.

Hadfield takes honours as the overall top graduate from Basic Jet Training in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

He trains as a fighter pilot in Cold Lake, Alberta, on CF-5s and CF-18s.

Chris Hadfield flies CF-18s for NORAD with 425 Squadron, conducting the first CF-18 intercept of a Soviet "Bear" bomber.

Hadfield attends the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, California, flying 32 different aircraft and earning honours as overall top graduate.

Hadfield serves as a U.S. Navy exchange officer at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, testing F/A-18 and A-7 aircraft, conducting research with NASA, and piloting the first flight test of the National Aerospace Plane external burning hydrogen propulsion engine.

Chris Hadfield is selected as one of four new Canadian astronauts from a field of 5,330 applicants. He is assigned to NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The same year, he receives a Master of Science in Aviation Systems from the University of Tennessee Space Institute.

Hadfield serves as Mission Specialist 1 on STS-74, ensuring the rendezvous and docking of NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis with the Russian space station Mir, and operating Canadarm in orbit – a first for a Canadian astronaut.

Hadfield returns to space, flying as Mission Specialist 1 on STS-100 International Space Station (ISS) assembly Flight 6A, performing two spacewalks and helping install Canadarm2. In total, Hadfield spends 14 hours, 54 minutes outside. The two spacewalks make him the first Canadian to ever venture outside a spacecraft while in orbit. He was also the first Canadian to operate Canadarm2 in space.

Hadfield serves as Director of Operations for NASA at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia.

Chris Hadfield retires as a Colonel from the Canadian Air Force after 25 years of service.

He works as Chief of Robotics for the NASA Astronaut Office at the Johnson Space Center.

He serves as Chief of ISS Operations at NASA.

Hadfield serves as the backup for Robert Thirsk for Expedition 20/21, and trains for long-duration spaceflight on the ISS.

In May, Hadfield serves as Commander of NEEMO 14, a NASA undersea mission to test exploration concepts off the Florida coast.

In June, Hadfield takes part in the Pavilion Lake Research Project, 300 km northeast of Vancouver, B.C., to investigate microbialites and how they might help identify potential forms of extraterrestrial life on future missions to Mars.

In September, he is assigned to Expedition 34/35 to the ISS.

Hadfield launches as the pilot of the Soyuz to begin Expedition 34/35, becoming the second Canadian to take part in a long-duration spaceflight aboard the ISS.

In March, Hadfield becomes the first Canadian to command a spaceship as he takes on the role of Commander of the ISS during the second portion of his five-month stay in space. In May, Hadfield and his crewmates Tom Marshburn and Roman Romanenko land in Kazakhstan after 146 days in space.

In June, Chris Hadfield announces his retirement from the Canadian Space Agency as of July 3, 2013, to take up new challenges. Later that year, he publishes his first book, An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, and begins a career as a business consultant, board director, keynote speaker and author.