This revolutionary moment in space exploration | Chris Hadfield
TED Talks Daily
TED
4.1 • 11.9K Ratings
🗓️ 13 December 2025
⏱️ 42 minutes
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Summary
What does it feel like to see Earth from outer space and imagine humanity's next steps? Astronaut Chris Hadfield, who has flown two Space Shuttle missions and served as commander of the International Space Station, explores the recent leaps in space exploration. From the thrills and risks of commercial space travel to collaborating as a species to shape the future, Hadfield reflects on what inspires innovation and our dreams of visiting the stars. (This conversation, hosted by TED's Whitney Pennington Rodgers, was part of an exclusive TED Membership event. TED Membership is the best way to support and engage with the big ideas you love from TED. To learn more, visit ted.com/membership.)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. |
| 0:12.4 | I'm your host, Elise Hugh. We're in the midst of an extraordinary space age, and yet very few people have actually been to space and can speak from a place |
| 0:22.0 | of personal experience about what might be the future of humankind there. |
| 0:27.1 | In this conversation, former astronaut Chris Hadfield, who's been dubbed a space exploring, |
| 0:31.7 | James Bond, sat down with Ted Curator Whitney Pennington Rogers to discuss his remarkable |
| 0:36.5 | experiences on the International Space Station |
| 0:38.9 | and how it turned into writing high-stakes fiction, including his latest book, Final Orbit. |
| 0:46.0 | The two of them explore the boundaries between what is science fiction and what is truly possible |
| 0:50.9 | and help paint a picture of the great unknown of the cosmos into something |
| 0:56.3 | we can all understand. |
| 1:07.3 | It feels like this is just an exciting time to talk about space and everyone seems to be doing it. |
| 1:15.0 | I think maybe we could just kick things off and start right there. |
| 1:18.0 | From your perspective, what do you think is driving this new wave of excitement and investment in space exploration? |
| 1:25.2 | What feels different to you about this moment? |
| 1:29.3 | Access. There are amazing times in history, Whitney, where we collectively as a species |
| 1:35.9 | invent something new that opens up whole new opportunities for humanity. Think about, |
| 1:43.4 | you know, when we first harnessed fire, or when someone |
| 1:45.7 | built the first raft to cross, I don't know, the Red Sea, or when we started domesticating |
| 1:53.3 | horses and allowed ourselves to travel quickly, or when the first train was invented, you know, |
| 2:00.2 | late 1700s, early 1800s, and then the airplane and the car, all of those things changed not only how we could move around, but then where we could go to. |
| 2:12.2 | And spaceflight has been around now for 60 years, but we're in a revolution right now of reusable spaceship |
| 2:19.7 | design, which is drastically dropping the cost, which then increases the access for everybody. |
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