On December 21, 2012 Chris Hadfield and his team docked with the ISS (after a two-day flight aboard a Soyuz TMA-07M) and began their mission on the International Space Station (ISS). Hadfield was the first Canadian to command the ISS, and during his time on the spacecraft, he inspired an entire generation. Hadfield regularly posted images of the Earth from the ISS. He even took requests, zeroing in on our most cherished places and showing us what they look like when you are 220 miles (350km) above the surface of the Earth. He took time out of his day to speak with classrooms and answer students’ questions. At the end of his mission, he handed over command of the International Space Station to Russia’s Pavel Vinogradov, and returned home. It was a bittersweet moment as Earth welcomed home a great man and space bid him farewell. However, it was a long journey to get to that moment.
Here, we relive one of his most notable moments: Cleaning in space
Ordinarily, when you make a mess, you get a washcloth and clean it up; however, things change when you are weightless and live hundreds of miles above Earth. Student winners of a Canadian Space Agency contest wanted to know exactly how cleaning works in space, and they turned to astronaut Chris Hadfield for the answer. The students, Meredith Faulkner and Kendra Lemke of Lockview High School in Fall River, Nova Scotia, designed an experiment to learn would happen when you wring out a soaking wet washcloth in microgravity. See the results below:
WATCH: Cleaning In Space
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