[LINK] "Hadfield named space station commander"

[rfmcdonald]

It's thanks to dewline that I've learned that Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield will be commanding the International Space Station in 2013.

Hadfield will launch aboard a Soyuz spacecraft late in 2012, Gary Goodyear, minister of state for science and technology, told a news conference Thursday in Longueuil, Que. The exact date of the launch has not been set, but it will likely be in either late November or early December.

In March 2013, Hadfield will take command for the second half of the six-month mission, overseeing the work of five other astronauts.

"To be trusted on their lives … is a tremendous honour that all of us share," he said, calling the opportunity extremely challenging, exciting and rewarding.

It will be his third journey into space.

The Ontario native, who was born in Sarnia and raised in Milton, will co-pilot the Soyuz rocket en route to the space station.

[. . .]

Veteran test pilot Hadfield's first mission in space was in 1995, when he became the only Canadian astronaut to board the Russian space station Mir.

On his second mission, in 2001, he attached Canadarm 2 to the International Space Station (ISS) during the first-ever spacewalk by a Canadian.