Everything I learned about space — how you cry, eat, sleep, vomit, wash, exercise, and more — I learned from Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield. During his missions aboard the International Space Station, Hadfield created a bevy of short Q&A-style videos that showed the topsy-turvey life of an astronaut millions of miles above Earth.
In 2013, Hadfield, who is now retired, published a memoir, An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, which serves up equally charismatic lessons about being a good astronaut and Earth-bound human. Adam Savage, who reviewed the book in The Wall Street Journal writes:
Equally autobiographical and instructional, the book goes gleefully against the grain of most "success" books. His perspective is reflected in counterintuitive chapter titles like "Sweat the Small Stuff," where he argues that seemingly unimportant details may loom large in an emergency and thus require our consideration beforehand. In "The Power of Negative Thinking," he says that the normal day of astronauts in training involves having countless meetings about what they got wrong—an approach, he explains, that saves lives. [The Wall Street Journal]
Now, that delightfully unique perspective will be turned into a multi-camera comedy of the same name on ABC. Creators Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker, from Fox's recently canceled Surviving Jack, have been given a pilot production commitment by the network. The show, according to Deadline, is "a family comedy about an astronaut who is back from space and finds that re-entering domestic life might be the hardest mission he's ever faced."
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 we can excuse that painfully cheesy description for the moment and put our faith in the fact that Hadfield will serve as a consulting producer.
Check out just one of Hadfield's many YouTube videos below, or go to the Canadian Space Agency channel for more. --Lauren Hansen
-
Air strikes in the Caribbean: Trump’s murky narco-warTalking Point Drug cartels ‘don’t follow Marquess of Queensberry Rules’, but US military air strikes on speedboats rely on strained interpretation of ‘invasion’
-
Crossword: September 14, 2025The Week's daily crossword puzzle
-
Sudoku medium: September 14, 2025The Week's daily medium sudoku puzzle
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclubSpeed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's illsSpeed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, StalloneSpeed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's viewSpeed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talkSpeed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposesspeed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle
-
New Mexico to investigate death of Gene Hackman, wifespeed read The Oscar-winning actor and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in their home with no signs of foul play
