'So part of it was really just a reflection of my personal responsibility as an astronaut to try and truly let people know what this rare experience is like.' 'It's not that far from the mentality of the early '90s when I first flew, in the mid-90s,' he said. So Hadfield was able to draw upon his own experiences, including 25 years as a fighter pilot with the Canadian Forces, to inform his characters' exploits - even if they were set within the mentality of an earlier decade. For more than 20 years, Hadfield served as an astronaut with the Canadian Space Agency, logging 166 days in space on two shuttle missions and as the commander of the International Space Station (opens in new tab). 'What is it actually like to be on a spaceship through all these various events - especially if you're under stress? How would people react? What would things look like? Where would your mind be? What would be your focus? And how would the crew react if somebody on board died?' he said.įor all perhaps that last point, Hadfield is perhaps uniquely suited to describe the experience. Related: 12 Highlights of Chris Hadfield's High-Flying Career More than just historical trivia, though, Hadfield wanted readers to get a visceral sense of what spaceflight is really like by grounding the book in the actual history and technical details. 'I wanted to put that author's note in just to go, 'Hey, just so you know, just so you don't have to Google these things, the captain of the New Orleans and captain of that submarine, those were real people and all this stuff really happened.' But Hadfield went so far as to write a postscript listing 'The Reality Behind the Apollo Murders.' That might be an odd thing to say about a story that includes a top secret mission, a clash that extends all the way to the surface of the moon and, as the title of the book implies, not just one, but multiple murders.

The apollo murders