The wonder of it all: Astronaut Chris Hadfield at the Bonus Arena – review
TO BOLDLY GO: Colonel Chris Hadfield, a former Commander of the International Space Station
By Vicky Foster
Last week, I was lucky enough to be in the audience when an astronaut landed at the Bonus Arena.
Colonel Chris Hadfield had been on an epic journey before arriving in Hull; beginning as a 10-year-old boy watching the moon landings on TV, through 25 years as a fighter pilot, to circling the Earth and spacewalking on his three separate space missions.
He’s famous for his amazing pictures, taken from space, chronicling his missions and the sight of Earth from a distance; for his five books about his experiences; and for playing David Bowie’s Space Oddity in space on the International Space Station’s guitar – the video of which has so far had 52 million views on You Tube.
You’d think after all that, he might be ready for a little rest. But instead, he’s touring Britain with his show, On Earth and Space: Chris Hadfield’s guide to the Cosmos. He’s still interested in the places he visits too. He took care to tell us that his wife, an artist, had been in the Ferens art gallery earlier in the day, and loved what she found there; and to focus on Hull and the Humber in his talk and some of his amazing graphics.
DREAM FULFILLED: Chris Hadfield, on stage at the Bonus Arena, left; on a space walk, centre; and as a young boy in Canada, right, when he dreamt of being an astronaut
You might also wonder whether his interests lay mainly in other planets, after all his travels, but his talk clearly showed his fascination with where we live now, as well as where we might go in the future. It also demonstrated that, after all his study and journeying through the solar system, he now has a brain as big as a galaxy.
Before the interval, he spoke for an hour, with no notes, no autocue, no lectern, moving around the stage, gesturing to the beautiful images that flitted across the giant screen behind him: Tim Peake’s photos of the Earth, glittering like a jewel, taken from space; Inge Lehman, and an introduction to her discoveries about the structure of our planet; the Sun, turning 500,000,000 tonnes of hydrogen into helium every second – “it’s been doing it for billions of years, but every now and then, it burps”.
When a picture of himself spacewalking appears, he smiles. “The suit is really uncomfortable,” he says. “Astronauts often come in bleeding after a spacewalk. It’s not really a suit of clothes at all – it’s a one-person spaceship.” Apparently it even has a jetpack – and a pop-out joystick in one of the legs – in case of emergencies.
I could fill pages and pages with details of what I learned in the first half of the night, but I have to admit that for the second half, I stopped writing, let myself settle in the excellent VIP seats, high up above the rest of the audience, and be carried away on some of Chris’s journeys with him.
HOME: An astronaut’s view of Earth on-screen at the Bonus Arena
Did you know that the Moon has been moving away from the world every day for 4.4 billion years? Did you know that it takes 92 minutes to go around the earth when you’re in space? Or that NASA are planning to use Elon Musk’s new rocket to settle people on the south pole of the Moon? Did you know that “sometimes chunks of Mars fall down and scatter across Antarctica and lie there like easter eggs?” I didn’t. But I do now.
I also know that one little boy, growing up in Canada, got to have all his dreams of travelling in space come true, and that he made another little boy’s dreams come true when he brought him up on stage last Thursday night and answered his question, in detail and with a demonstration, of how you go to toilet in space.
I’m sure there’ll be plenty more of that kind of thing on the rest of his tour too, as Colonel Chris Hadfield continues his journey, sharing all the things he’s learned, and the wonder he has for all that he’s seen.
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