Astronaut Chris Hadfield Wishes the World Optimism in New Year's Video
Retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is asking to hear your resolutions for 2015 in a new video released by the famous spaceflyer on Dec. 27. In the 2-minute video, Hadfield explains that there are many reasons to be optimistic when thinking about next year.
"There are problems with everything, and nothing is yet perfect, but that shouldn't be cause to bemoan; that should be cause to achieve," Hadfield said in the video. "Our world is a better place than we often claim it to be. We're living in an all-time high for health and wellness, and literacy has been sharply on the rise for decades."
Hadfield ends the video by saying that changing the world for the better starts with a resolution. The Canadian astronaut spent close to six months on the International Space Station in 2013, and since then, he retired from the Canadian astronaut corp., and released a book called "You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes" in 2014 showing off his favorite photos of Earth from space.
NASA astronauts currently on the space station sent down their New Year's greetings to Earth this week as well. Astronauts Terry Virts and Barry "Butch" Wilmore are planning on celebrating the start of 2015 16 times during their day on the station. The station moves so quickly that Wilmore, Virts and their fellow crewmembers - European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov, Elena Serova and Alexander Samokutyaev - will pass over parts of the planet experiencing the first moments of 2015 16 times in just one of their orbital days.
"We want to wish everybody a happy, healthy, prosperous 2015 as we get the awesome privilege of celebrating New Year's up on the space station," Virts said during the video. "Have a great New Year's and a safe New Year's down there, and we'll enjoy our 16 New Year's Eve celebrations here onboard the space station."
Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
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