Canadian astronaut Commander Chris Hadfield will soon be simply, “Mr. Hadfield.”
That’s because he has announced that he is resigning.
In this case, “resigning” means stopping his job as an astronaut.
Hadfield has been an astronaut for 35 years.
Recently, he gained wide popularity after sending photos and videos to Earth from the International Space Station. Many people around the world enjoyed his tweets and Facebook posts from space.
By quitting his job as an astronaut, he’ll be able to move back to Canada from Houston, Texas, where he has lived since the 1980s.
Hadfield’s last day as an astronaut will be July 3.
He isn’t sure what he’ll do next, according to a report by CBC news.
He’s still working on getting his strength back, after his five-month stay on the International Space Station. He lost about five per cent of his bone density while he was in space.
Astronauts lose bone density while in space because of the lack of gravity, which takes the weight off the body. Hadfield will gain it back through exercise.
Hadfield told the CBC he “expects to be back to normal by around Labour Day.”
Yesterday, Hadfield met and had breakfast with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his wife. On his Facebook page, he called the chance to meet the PM “a high honour.”
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Jonathan Tilly
Writing/Discussion Prompt
Chris Hadfield is resigning after a long career as an astronaut. Many people who have worked for many years, and retire from their work, have much more time to do things they enjoy. If you retired from your job, after working 35 years, what would you do?
Reading Prompt: Reading Fluently
Ed Robertson and Chris Hadfield wrote a song called “I.S.S. – Is Somebody Singing.” Read these words silently to yourself. Now, read them to a friend. Try to deliver the lines using expression to convey meaning.
I.S.S. (Is Somebody Singing)
On solid fuel and wires
Turn the key and light the fires
We’re leaving Earth today
This rocket’s burning bright
We’ll soon be out of sight
And orbiting in space
Pushed back in my seat
Look out my window
There goes home
That ball of shiny blue
Houses everybody anybody ever knewSo sing your song I’m listening
out where stars are glistening
I can hear your voices bouncing off the moon
If you could see our Nation
From the International Space Station
You’d know why I want to get back soonAll black and white just fades to grey
Where the sun rises sixteen times a day
You can’t make out borders from up here
Just a spinning ball within a tiny atmosphere
Eighteen thousand miles an hour
Fuelled by science and solar power
The oceans racing past
At half a thousand tons
Ninety minutes Moon to Sun
A bullet can’t go half this fast
Floating from my seat
Look out my window
There goes Home
That brilliant ball of blue
Is where I’m from, and also where I’m going toPushed back in my seat
Look out my window
Here comes home
What once was fuelled by fear
Now has fifteen Nations orbiting together here
Primary
Read appropriate texts at a sufficient rate and with sufficient expression to convey the sense of the text readily to the reader and an audience (OME, Reading: 3.3).
Junior
Read appropriate texts with expression and confidence, adjusting reading strategies and reading rate to match the form and purpose (OME, Reading: 3.3).
Intermediate
Read appropriate texts with expression and confidence, adjusting reading strategies and reading rate to match the form and purpose (OME, Reading: 3.3).
Grammar Feature: The “naut” suffix
“Naut” is suffix. A suffix is a special ending that can be placed on the end of a root word in order to change its meaning. The suffix, “naut,” means voyager, traveller, or farer in Greek. So an “astronaut” is a traveller of stars (astron in Greek). Likewise an “oceanaut” is someone who is an underwater explorer. Get it? Now, invent 3 neat “nauts” of your own. Include a definition is your work.
