Astronaut Hadfield says he gets mad when it’s bedtime

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield says the only down side about being on the International Space Station (ISS) is having to go to bed.

“This is a marvelous, marvelous human experience. The only thing that gets me mad is that I have to sleep,” Hadfield said in his first news conference since becoming commander of the ISS on Wednesday.

“My resolution has been to make the absolute most of it, to spend as little time sleeping as I can.”

Hadfield said he’s dreamed about going into space since he was young and is trying to make the most of his time up there.

“When I get back from this I’m going to regret every minute that I didn’t spend looking at the world or trying small experiments or doing things that are impossible in the rest of my life.”

The 53-year-old space veteran is the first Canadian to hold the position of commander of the ISS.

When asked about how he keeps his spirits up and never seems to be negative, Hadfield said it isn’t difficult.

“Up here the opportunity for the pleasurable, beautiful part (of life) is overwhelmingly in the majority so I don’t let myself get that way. It’s not going to help and it’s kind of counterintuitive in a place like this.”

Hadfield also spoke about the importance of the experiments going on in the orbiting space lab.

“We’re running hundreds of experiments in the space station that can’t be run on the earth,” he explained. “Mounted to the top of the space station is the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and it is trying to understand the absolute stuff of the universe. What is antimatter, what is the percentage of antimatter and dark matter, collecting dark energy from the universe.”

Hadfield’s charm, talents and social media campaign about his mission have gained him a huge following on Twitter alone. He currently has more than 500,000 followers in only three months and his photos of the planet have generated thousands of retweets.

“The numbers are good to read but what’s important out of it is the impact that it has,” he said.

Managed by his son Evan, Hadfield has helped bring space exploration, science and the beauty of Earth to the general public on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Google+. Hadfield said his Twitter account is even being used in classrooms.

“(They) are using the work that I’m doing, the science that we have on board, the pictures that we take of the world, the fact that I speak three languages, they use the fact that I play guitar and play music,” he explained. “They use all of those different facets of this human experience in order to teach in order to inspire young people all around the world.”

Hadfield added that he thinks being able to bring the wonder of the planet into people’s home through social media helps them gain perspective on just how small the world is.

“It’s hard to view other places as foreign and different when they are all viewed in 90 minutes and, for me, it’s very heartwarming when I see that people are internalizing that. When they stop using the third person and start talking about we and us — not just you and they.”

The ISS orbits the Earth once every 90 minutes.

Hadfield’s five-month visit, which began in late December, ends in mid-May.

– with files from The Canadian Press