Astronaut adorably comforts five-year-old boy worried about Voyager: 'It's a very tough little spaceship'


Several weeks ago, astronaut Chris Hadfield spoke on CBC Radio's The Current about the Voyager 1 satellite, which left Earth 37 years ago. Listening in was five-year-old Timur, who lives in British Columbia, Canada. And Timur did not like what he heard.
There's a satellite all alone, floating through space? What if something goes wrong and there's nothing to fix it? What if it gets lost? These questions worried Timur so much that he couldn't sleep, so with some help from his mom, he got a chance to ask Hadfield directly, and the resulting "interview" is definitely worth a full listen.
Hadfield, who commanded Expedition 35 to the International Space Station, reassures Timur that Voyager is "a very tough little spaceship."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"I think the real question is, is Voyager happy or not? Is Voyager a happy machine, or a sad machine?" Hadfield tells Timur. "I think about that…I really like the machines that I'm working with to be happy. And what I was thinking, Timur, was, machines really like to do something. They like to do what they're built for."
At the end of the exchange, Hadfield asks Timur, "Does it make you happier?" to which the little boy responds, "Not really." Maybe he'll be more reassured by Voyager's own admission that it's doing just fine, (via a NASA-run Twitter account for the satellite):
You can listen to the full, absolutely adorable interview over at CBC Radio.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Sarah Eberspacher is an associate editor at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked as a sports reporter at The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus and The Arizona Republic. She graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.
-
How far would Russia go for Iran?
Today's Big Question US air strikes represent an 'embarrassment, provocation and opportunity' all rolled into one for Vladimir Putin
-
Anshu Ahuja's golden coconut and butter bean curry recipe
The Week Recommends Plump, creamy beans in a sweet, spicy sauce
-
The treasure trove of platinum on the moon
Under the radar This kind of bounty could lead to commercial exploitation
-
Dehorning rhinos sharply cuts poaching, study finds
Speed Read The painless procedure may be an effective way to reduce the widespread poaching of rhinoceroses
-
Breakthrough gene-editing treatment saves baby
speed read KJ Muldoon was healed from a rare genetic condition
-
Sea lion proves animals can keep a beat
speed read A sea lion named Ronan beat a group of college students in a rhythmic dance-off, says new study
-
Humans heal much slower than other mammals
Speed Read Slower healing may have been an evolutionary trade-off when we shed fur for sweat glands
-
Novel 'bone collector' caterpillar wears its prey
Speed Read Hawaiian scientists discover a carnivorous caterpillar that decorates its shell with the body parts of dead insects
-
Scientists find hint of alien life on distant world
Speed Read NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has detected a possible signature of life on planet K2-18b
-
Katy Perry, Gayle King visit space on Bezos rocket
Speed Read Six well-known women went into lower orbit for 11 minutes
-
Scientists map miles of wiring in mouse brain
Speed Read Researchers have created the 'largest and most detailed wiring diagram of a mammalian brain to date,' said Nature