Chris Hadfield Chris Hadfield was born in 1959 and raised on a corn farm in southern Ontario. He was an Air Cadet, and won a glider pilot scholarship at age 15, and a powered pilot scholarship at age 16. Since then, in his years of military experience, he has won many flying awards. His university degrees are in mechanical engineering and aviation systems. He is married with three children and enjoys skiing, volleyball, guitar, singing, riding, writing, and soccer. In June 1992, Hadfield was selected from 5 330 candidates to be one of four Canadian astronauts. He became the first Canadian mission specialist, the first Canadian to operate the Canadarm in orbit, and the only Canadian to ever visit Mir. During the 8-day visit to Mir, the crew aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis transferred over 2,000 pounds of food, water and scientific supplies for use by the Russian cosmonauts. In 1999 Hadfield will fly on STS-100, an International Space Station assembly flight. The crew will deliver and install the new Canadian Robot Arm. During the flight three space walks are planned, so Chris Hatfield will be the first Canadian to ever leave a spacecraft, and float in space.