The Blog That’s Out Of This World
Colonel Chris Hadfield is a singing, guitar playing, photograph taking astronaut, oh who also blogs and tweets from outer space. With 307,269 followers on Twitter and a daily updated blog on Tumblr, Hadfield is probably the most followed astronaut ever.
In an interview from the International Space Station, Hadfield proclaimed that, “the favorite past time of astronauts is looking out the window.” By sharing what he is able to see everyday from his window with the rest of the world, Hadfield makes it possible for the public to actively participate in manned space exploration.
When Hadfield first began blogging he was primarily interested in showing people the backstage life of an astronaut. As the numbers of his followers increased, Hadfield’s motivation for sharing images and commentary shifted.
He explained that because of the fact that spacecrafts fly around the world in 90 minutes, astronauts have a very different perspective of mother Earth than the relative ants beneath them back on land. This alternative viewpoint of Earth allows for a new understanding of how we are all connected.
Hadfield hopes that the photographs he publishes will give people a more global perspective and remind us that “we are all in this together.”