(Chris Hadfield, Spoken:)
Weightlessness is such a joy
Floating around effortlessly, like a superpower
For almost half a year
But it was also really joyful
To know that I was coming back home
People think about spaceflight, they think about launch
And- and maybe they think about weightlessness, and floating
Up in space
But most people don't think about
Coming back down, to Earth
My name's Chris Hadfield, I've flown in space three times
My third spaceflight
I was the pilot of a Russian spaceship
The Soyuz
After six months in space
Climbed into my pressure suit
And climbed into the Soyuz and strapped back into my chair
And got ready to undock from the space station
It's a really melancholy moment
I knеw it was my last spaceflight
I was thinking how to fly the ship home
But I was also thinking about
The amazing adventure that I'd just been on
But we did all of our checks, and we drove the hooks
That released us from the space station
Then we could fire the big engine
To get our vehicle turned around the right way
So it would slow down our orbit
So we could fall away from the space station
And as the engine fired and slowed down our orbit
That was fine
And then, now you're going slow enough
That you don't even have enough fuel
That you could get back into orbit again
You're committed
And the vehicle is in three pieces
And when the air starts to get thicker around the vehicle
Just way at the top of the atmosphere
An explosion happens
And it breaks those three pieces into individual parts
So the engine piece flies off
And the living quarters, it flies off
And they tumble away
And they burn up in the atmosphere
Our vehicle, in the middle of that explosion
Turns itself so that, as we start to enter the thickest atmosphere
It can take the heat, and, it burns around you
It's so bizarre, to look out the window
And see flame licking around your ship
And suddenly I heard a 'bang!'
I was thinking, 'Oh, so this is how I'm gonna die'
And then there was another, 'bang!'
And more sparks went by the window
But as the air slows you down and gets heavier and heavier
You get crushed down into your seat
And then
'Bang!'
Suddenly, after weightlessness
And then all of that force and banging and all of those explosions
Out pops the great big parachute
And you equalize with the air of the world
The vehicle opens a hole, basically
And, for the first time in five or six months
I could smell the world
I could smell life, I could smell grass, and Earth
It was lovely. It was so reminiscent. I felt proud
But mostly I just felt, joyful
That I was back home