Chris Hadfield went blind during a spacewalk while moving at 17,000 miles per hour, and his response was to work the problem. This episode traces how a kid from a corn farm in southern Ontario, inspired by the 1969 Apollo 11 broadcast at age nine, systematically built himself into someone a space agency could not ignore: air cadet glider scholarships, a mechanical engineering degree from the Royal Military College, CF-18 Hornet flights for NORAD including the first intercept of a Soviet bomber in the Canadian Arctic, and graduating top of his class at the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School with more than 70 aircraft types under his belt.

Selected as one of four Canadian astronauts from over 5,300 applicants in 1992, Hadfield served as CAPCOM for 25 shuttle missions, flew STS-74 to Mir in 1995 as the first Canadian to operate the Canadarm, and installed Canadarm2 on STS-100 in 2001, when an anti-fog flake blinded both eyes and he cleared them by venting his suit’s oxygen into space. The hosts then cover his 2012 to 2013 command of the International Space Station on Expedition 35, the social media strategy he built with his son Evan, his recording of Jewel in the Night, the Space Oddity video that sparked a copyright debate about music recorded in orbit, and his post-retirement life as professor, BBC host, Virgin Galactic advisor and thriller novelist.

• How the Apollo 11 landing became a roadmap rather than just a dream
• Intercepting a Soviet bomber in the Arctic and testing experimental aircraft for NASA
• The STS-100 spacewalk blindness and the pressure-valve fix that saved the mission
• Commanding the ISS while showing daily life in orbit through photos, Reddit and music
• The Order of Canada, a namesake asteroid and bee, and novels including The Apollo Murders