Prepped ‘for years,’ Chris Hadfield takes over space station command

Chris Hadfield knows it's easy to be in charge when things are going well.

It's a lot tougher to be a leader when they are not.

But the astronaut who becomes the first Canadian commander of the International Space Station this afternoon has done everything he can for the past 20 years to be ready for what he sees as the pinnacle of his career.

"I think the hardest part is being ready all the time for things to go badly because when things are going well, it's easy to be in charge," the 53-year-old told students via videolink from the ISS to Chris Hadfield Public School in his hometown of Milton, Ont., earlier this year.

Maybe a meteorite might strike the $150-billion high-tech orbiting laboratory. Maybe a fire might break out. Maybe a crisis might hit a crewmember's family back on Earth and he can't get home right away. These are the kinds of eventualities a commander has to be prepared for.

Hadfield's two decades as an astronaut have been geared toward an assignment like this. But his preparation probably started even earlier.

"In truth, I started training to command the space station when I was 14," he told University of Waterloo students via videolink from the ISS last month.

"I was in the Air Cadets and I went to a junior leaders' course and they taught me the basic precepts of leadership at 14 years old as a young Canadian, and since then I've watched leaders, and you can learn something from every leader."

Even bad leaders can teach lessons to those below them, and Hadfield said he's learned from all kinds.

"I've also, through the military and then in my 20 years as an astronaut, been given increasing opportunities to manage and to lead people, and that all put me in a position where I could get assigned to command a spaceship," he told the students.

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Prepped 'for years,' Chris Hadfield takes over space station command