Chris Hadfield’s Fictional Universe Is Rooted in Real Space History

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.3 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 8 October 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

What happens when a real-life astronaut turns to fiction? In this episode, Chris Hadfield shares how decades of spaceflight and global diplomacy inspired his latest novel, Final Orbit, a cold war thriller packed with historical intrigue and technical precision. Host Rachel Feltman dives into Hadfield’s creative process and the eerie parallels between past and present geopolitics. Recommended Reading Final Orbit, by Chris Hadfield. Mulholland Books, 2025 Science Quickly is a Signal Awards finalist! Support us by casting your vote before October 9 at the following link: https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting?utm_campaign=signal4_finalists_finalistnotification_092325&utm_medium=email&utm_source=cio#/2025/shows/genre/science E-mail us at [email protected] if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter. Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura and Kylie Murphy. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check the show. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	For Scientific American Science quickly, I'm Rachel Feldman.
0:18.7	You might know Chris Hadfield as the International Space Station Commander
0:26.8	who famously sang David Bowie's space oddity while orbiting Earth.
0:31.0	But in recent years, he's added fiction writer to his list of jobs,
0:35.1	publishing thrillers based on the real history of the space race.
0:39.6	His latest book, Final Orbit, is set in 1975 and features historical figures navigating
0:45.7	geopolitical tensions that may sound surprisingly familiar to anyone following current events.
0:52.2	Here to talk about how his experience as an astronaut
0:55.0	informs his fiction writing is Colonel Chris Hadfield,
0:58.3	former commander of the International Space Station.
1:01.1	Thanks so much for coming on to chat with us today.
1:03.3	My pleasure.
1:04.2	Most folks know you from your time in the ISS.
1:09.1	Could you catch people up on what you've been doing since then?
1:12.2	Yeah, I served as an astronaut for 21 years and flew in space three times, commanded a spaceship, did some spacewalks.
1:18.8	But all good things must come to an end. And I retired from 35 years of government service. Since then, I've written six books. I helped lead several
1:29.0	space companies and other tech companies. I run a big international technology incubator called
1:34.8	the Creative Destruction Lab. I run a big section of that. Working with King Charles on space
1:40.7	sustainability, a project called the Sustainable Markets Initiative tour with a band,
1:46.6	and we played a concert that sold out in a day, so that was a lot of fun.
1:50.7	And I have two granddaughters, but no, life is busy and full and rich. Thank you.
1:54.9	That's awesome. And you actually are just releasing, I believe it's your third work of fiction, which might surprise
	...

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