(Astronaut and possible protege check out some pictures in Chris Hadfield's book.  Photos 250 News)

Prince George, B.C. – It isn’t every day that you get the opportunity to meet the hands-down star of the Canadian space program.  In fact many will never have that chance.

So it was not totally surprising that Prince George and area residents came by the carload to meet astronaut Colonel Chris Hadfield, former commander of the international space station, at Exploration Place on Saturday.  Colonel Hadfield had been booked as the keynote speaker at Saturday night’s 10th annual Dr. Bob Ewert Memorial lecture and dinner at the Civic Centre.  And just as that event was sold out, so too was the book signing at Exploration Place extremely well-attended.

Both parking lots were filled to capacity with each vacating vehicle quickly replaced by the “hawks” circling in anticipation of finding a spot.  Vehicles were parked on both sides of Gorse Street and along 20th Avenue.  Why, the crowd, which backed out of the museum and along the sidewalk, was so large that the astronaut who performed David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” in the first-ever music video from space kicked off his scheduled 11:30 am book signing at 11:15.  The session was to wrap up at 1pm but Hadfield remained right up until he had met and chatted with the very last “fan” at 1:30 in the afternoon.

Exploration Place CEO Tracy Calogheros says she brought in 144 copies of Hadfield’s hardcover book “An Astronaut’s Guide To Life On Earth” but says she was unsure how many copies had come in from other sources in the city.  The books on hand were gone by 1pm and went for $35.84 a pop.  And now the bookshelves of some local homes are adorned with the autographed thoughts of  a Canadian who made history in space.

For a person who makes hundreds of personal appearances and meets thousands upon thousands of people each year Hadfield was quite prepared to have a short chat and a photo taken with each person, adult and child, who was lined up to meet him.  But you can tell that he gets his biggest kick when meeting the youngsters and instilling in them the thought that they can achieve anything they set their mind to.

One example of that came right at the tail end of the session.  A young boy named Ryan, in the photo at the top of the article, stepped forward.  Hadfield asked “what is your name?”  The boy replied “Ryan.”  “And how old are you Ryan?” “Five” said the youngster.  Hadfield opened a copy of his book and said “see this picture, that’s me when I was five.  And that’s me when I got married.  And that’s me in the International Space Station.  That was me when I was five, just like you.”

Ryan headed off after shaking hands with the astronaut, his face revealing that he now had something very interesting to think about.