Psy's Gangnam Style reaches 1 billion views on YouTube

Viral star Psy has reached a new milestone on YouTube.

The South Korean rapper's video for Gangnam Style has reached 1 billion views, according to YouTube's own counter. It's the first time any clip has surpassed that mark on the streaming service owned by Google Inc.

It shows the enduring popularity of the self-deprecating video that features Park Jae-sang's giddy up-style dance moves. The video has been available on YouTube since July 15, averaging more than 200 million views per month.

Justin Bieber's video for Baby held the previous YouTube record at more than 800 million views.

Psy wasn't just popular on YouTube, either. Earlier this month Google announced Gangnam Style was the second highest trending search of 2012 behind Whitney Houston, who passed away in February.

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Guns made on 3-D printers more of a reality

Downloading a gun's design plans to your computer, building it on a three-dimensional printer and firing it minutes later. No background checks, no questions asked.

Sound far-fetched? It's not. And that is disquieting for U.S. gun control advocates.

At least one group, called Defence Distributed, is claiming to have created downloadable weapon parts that can be built using the increasingly popular new generation of printer that uses plastics and other materials to create 3-D objects with moving parts.

University of Texas law student Cody Wilson, the 24-year-old "Wiki Weapons" project leader, says the group last month test fired a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle — one of the weapon types used in last week's Connecticut school massacre — which was built with some key parts created on a 3-D printer. The gun was fired six times before it broke.

3-D gun fired 6 times before breaking

Though no independent observer was there to verify the test, a short video clip showing the gun firing and breaking was posted to YouTube.

Federal firearms regulators said they are aware of the technology's gun-making potential but do not believe an entire weapon has yet been made.

U.S. Representative Steven Israel said the prospect of such guns becoming reality is reason enough for the renewal of the Undetectable Firearms Act, which makes illegal the building of guns that can't be detected by X-ray or metallic scanners. That law expires at the end of 2013.

"What's chilling is that last month a group of kids used a 3-D printer to actually manufacture (key parts) of the AR-15 and fire six bullets," the Democrat said. "When the (act) was last renewed in 2003, a gun made by a 3-D printer was like a Star Trek episode, but now we know it's real."

'What's chilling is that last month a group of kids used a 3-D printer to actually manufacture (key parts) of the AR-15 and fire six bullets'—U.S. Rep. Steven Israel

Even with gun control pushed to the top of the national political conversation, Wilson is steadfast about reaching his goal of making a fully downloadable gun. This weekend, he and his partners plan to print four new lower receivers — the part of the gun that includes the trigger, magazine and grip. He keeps three of these AR-15 parts in his tidy student apartment in Austin, Texas.

While saddened by the Connecticut school killing, Wilson said Thursday that protecting the constitutional right to bear arms by giving everyone access to guns is more important in the long term than a single horrible crime.

"Clearly what happened in Connecticut was a tragedy," he told The Associated Press. "Still, by affording the Second Amendment protection, we understand events like these will happen."

He said he discussed with his partners whether they should suspend their effort, and they all decided it was too important to stop.

Wilson acknowledged there still are many technical hurdles to creating a complete gun from a 3-D printer and provided no estimate on when his goal might be reached.

Some homemade guns not illegal

Special Agent Helen Dunkel of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which helps enforce gun laws, said the agency is familiar with Wilson's project. She didn't offer an opinion but noted there is nothing illegal about making many types of guns at home. Exceptions would be high-powered weapons like machine-guns and those not detectable by airport scanners.

3-D printing technology was developed for the automobile, aerospace and other industries to create product prototypes from the same hard plastics used in toys like Legos. Hobbyists mainly use the printers to design Christmas ornaments, toys and gadget accessories.

Prices on the machines have fallen as the consumer market grows, leading to a surge in interest from people in the so-called "maker" scene. Low-end 3-D printers can now be purchased online from between $1,500 US and $4,000 US. The more high-end printers needed to make gun parts are still priced from $10,000 US and up.

Stratasys Ltd. of Minnesota makes 3-D printers. Shane Glenn, director of investor relations, said gun-making was never something envisioned for the machines.

"The gun issue is something that the 3-D printing industry will have to address going forward," Glenn said.

'The gun issue is something that the 3-D printing industry will have to address going forward'—Shane Glenn, director of investor relations at Stratasys Ltd.

Right now, most people interested in 3-D printing rent time on one. There are a number of businesses and co-ops in major cities that allow access to the machines for a nominal fee. At San Francisco's TechShop, which features a 3-D printer for its members, "assembling firearms is strictly prohibited and our staff is trained on that policy," company spokeswoman Carrie Motamedi said.

Wilson acknowledged his idea has met resistance from those active in 3-D printing.

"The early adopters of 3-D printing technology seem to be an educated, more liberal group who were against firearms to begin with," he said. Wilson said some are worried the gun project might spur regulations that will hurt or curtail their projects.

Paul Saffo, a Silicon Valley technology forecaster who teaches at Stanford University's engineering school, said Defence Distributed's work carries on a long tradition of tech geeks using innovation to make a political point, in this case on gun control and constitutional freedoms.

"If you want to get people's attention in Washington, you say something. If you want to do it in Silicon Valley, you make something," Saffo said.

He said the technology exists now for a highly motivated group to make a plastic gun on a 3-D printer that could avoid airport scanners. But the equipment is still too expensive for most people.

"Nobody right now needs to worry about the bright teenager making a gun on a printer in their bedroom," he said.

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Chris Hadfield and crew enter International Space Station

The Russian space capsule carrying Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield and two colleagues docked with the International Space Station on Friday morning.

The spacecraft carrying Hadfield, NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn and cosmonaut Roman Romanenko linked up with the space station's Rassvet module at 9:09 a.m. ET after spending two days in orbit

The new crew was welcomed aboard the space station and fielded calls from family and Mission Control officials. (NASA TV)

The docking took place around 410 kilometres above their point of origin, the Baikonur space port in southern Kazakhstan.

The trio will join NASA astronaut Cmdr. Kevin Ford and flight engineers and cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin, who have been residing at the orbital laboratory since Oct. 26.

A welcome ceremony began once the hatch opened at 11:37 a.m. ET Friday, 2½ hours after the shuttle docked with the space station.

Hadfield was the first to float through the hatch. The new trio exchanged hugs and greetings with the existing crew upon entering the station, then fielded congratulatory calls from family and Mission Control officials.

'It's like going up to an attic and discovering a treasure you've forgotten about.'—Chris Hadfield, Canadian astronaut

"It's like going up to an attic and discovering a treasure you've forgotten about," said Hadfield on the phone with his family. "It's just magic."

Each newcomer spoke to members of their families from Mission Control in Moscow. Marshburn's daughter asked him to do a flip in the zero-gravity space station, which he did, much to the amusement of the audience in Moscow and the new crew.

Hadfield's son commented that his father's face was puffy and wondered if it was from smiling too much.

"Yeah, we've been smiling a lot," Hadfield said. "It was just a heck of a ride for the three of us. It's like being on a crazy dragster."

Chris Hadfield was the first of the newcomers to enter through the hatch at the International Space Station. (NASA TV)

Hadfield also spoke with Paul Engel, director of communications for the Canadian Space Agency.

"All of Canada tuned in to watch that absolutely picture-perfect launch," said Engel. "Absolutely extraordinary. Good luck with the mission."

During his five-month visit, Hadfield will become the first Canadian to command the giant orbiting space laboratory in its 14-year history when he takes over in mid-March. Once Hadfield takes command, Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin will return home.

It's a task that former Canadian astronaut Bob Thirsk says will be challenging.

'All of Canada tuned in to watch that absolutely picture-perfect launch.'—Paul Engel, director of communications, Canadian Space Agency

He says the 53-year-old Hadfield will have to maintain crew morale and make sure the crew paces itself, adding that the long duration stay is a marathon, not a sprint

Thirsk spent six months on the space station in 2009 — a record for a Canadian astronaut.

He also says that being away from family can be tough on astronauts who spend a long period of time on the space station.

This is Hadfield's third space journey.

His first space trip was in November 1995 when he visited the Russian Space Station Mir.

His second voyage was a visit to the International Space Station in April 2001, when he also performed two spacewalks.

Hadfield, Marshburn and Romanenko return home in May.

With files from The Canadian Press

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Psy's Gangnam Style reaches 1 billion views on YouTube

Viral star Psy has reached a new milestone on YouTube.

The South Korean rapper's video for Gangnam Style has reached 1 billion views, according to YouTube's own counter. It's the first time any clip has surpassed that mark on the streaming service owned by Google Inc.

It shows the enduring popularity of the self-deprecating video that features Park Jae-sang's giddy up-style dance moves. The video has been available on YouTube since July 15, averaging more than 200 million views per month.

Justin Bieber's video for Baby held the previous YouTube record at more than 800 million views.

Psy wasn't just popular on YouTube, either. Earlier this month Google announced Gangnam Style was the second highest trending search of 2012 behind Whitney Houston, who passed away in February.

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Guns made on 3-D printers more of a reality

Downloading a gun's design plans to your computer, building it on a three-dimensional printer and firing it minutes later. No background checks, no questions asked.

Sound far-fetched? It's not. And that is disquieting for U.S. gun control advocates.

At least one group, called Defence Distributed, is claiming to have created downloadable weapon parts that can be built using the increasingly popular new generation of printer that uses plastics and other materials to create 3-D objects with moving parts.

University of Texas law student Cody Wilson, the 24-year-old "Wiki Weapons" project leader, says the group last month test fired a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle — one of the weapon types used in last week's Connecticut school massacre — which was built with some key parts created on a 3-D printer. The gun was fired six times before it broke.

3-D gun fired 6 times before breaking

Though no independent observer was there to verify the test, a short video clip showing the gun firing and breaking was posted to YouTube.

Federal firearms regulators said they are aware of the technology's gun-making potential but do not believe an entire weapon has yet been made.

U.S. Representative Steven Israel said the prospect of such guns becoming reality is reason enough for the renewal of the Undetectable Firearms Act, which makes illegal the building of guns that can't be detected by X-ray or metallic scanners. That law expires at the end of 2013.

"What's chilling is that last month a group of kids used a 3-D printer to actually manufacture (key parts) of the AR-15 and fire six bullets," the Democrat said. "When the (act) was last renewed in 2003, a gun made by a 3-D printer was like a Star Trek episode, but now we know it's real."

'What's chilling is that last month a group of kids used a 3-D printer to actually manufacture (key parts) of the AR-15 and fire six bullets'—U.S. Rep. Steven Israel

Even with gun control pushed to the top of the national political conversation, Wilson is steadfast about reaching his goal of making a fully downloadable gun. This weekend, he and his partners plan to print four new lower receivers — the part of the gun that includes the trigger, magazine and grip. He keeps three of these AR-15 parts in his tidy student apartment in Austin, Texas.

While saddened by the Connecticut school killing, Wilson said Thursday that protecting the constitutional right to bear arms by giving everyone access to guns is more important in the long term than a single horrible crime.

"Clearly what happened in Connecticut was a tragedy," he told The Associated Press. "Still, by affording the Second Amendment protection, we understand events like these will happen."

He said he discussed with his partners whether they should suspend their effort, and they all decided it was too important to stop.

Wilson acknowledged there still are many technical hurdles to creating a complete gun from a 3-D printer and provided no estimate on when his goal might be reached.

Some homemade guns not illegal

Special Agent Helen Dunkel of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which helps enforce gun laws, said the agency is familiar with Wilson's project. She didn't offer an opinion but noted there is nothing illegal about making many types of guns at home. Exceptions would be high-powered weapons like machine-guns and those not detectable by airport scanners.

3-D printing technology was developed for the automobile, aerospace and other industries to create product prototypes from the same hard plastics used in toys like Legos. Hobbyists mainly use the printers to design Christmas ornaments, toys and gadget accessories.

Prices on the machines have fallen as the consumer market grows, leading to a surge in interest from people in the so-called "maker" scene. Low-end 3-D printers can now be purchased online from between $1,500 US and $4,000 US. The more high-end printers needed to make gun parts are still priced from $10,000 US and up.

Stratasys Ltd. of Minnesota makes 3-D printers. Shane Glenn, director of investor relations, said gun-making was never something envisioned for the machines.

"The gun issue is something that the 3-D printing industry will have to address going forward," Glenn said.

'The gun issue is something that the 3-D printing industry will have to address going forward'—Shane Glenn, director of investor relations at Stratasys Ltd.

Right now, most people interested in 3-D printing rent time on one. There are a number of businesses and co-ops in major cities that allow access to the machines for a nominal fee. At San Francisco's TechShop, which features a 3-D printer for its members, "assembling firearms is strictly prohibited and our staff is trained on that policy," company spokeswoman Carrie Motamedi said.

Wilson acknowledged his idea has met resistance from those active in 3-D printing.

"The early adopters of 3-D printing technology seem to be an educated, more liberal group who were against firearms to begin with," he said. Wilson said some are worried the gun project might spur regulations that will hurt or curtail their projects.

Paul Saffo, a Silicon Valley technology forecaster who teaches at Stanford University's engineering school, said Defence Distributed's work carries on a long tradition of tech geeks using innovation to make a political point, in this case on gun control and constitutional freedoms.

"If you want to get people's attention in Washington, you say something. If you want to do it in Silicon Valley, you make something," Saffo said.

He said the technology exists now for a highly motivated group to make a plastic gun on a 3-D printer that could avoid airport scanners. But the equipment is still too expensive for most people.

"Nobody right now needs to worry about the bright teenager making a gun on a printer in their bedroom," he said.

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Chris Hadfield and crew enter International Space Station

The Russian space capsule carrying Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield and two colleagues docked with the International Space Station on Friday morning.

The spacecraft carrying Hadfield, NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn and cosmonaut Roman Romanenko linked up with the space station's Rassvet module at 9:09 a.m. ET after spending two days in orbit

The new crew was welcomed aboard the space station and fielded calls from family and Mission Control officials. (NASA TV)

The docking took place around 410 kilometres above their point of origin, the Baikonur space port in southern Kazakhstan.

The trio will join NASA astronaut Cmdr. Kevin Ford and flight engineers and cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin, who have been residing at the orbital laboratory since Oct. 26.

A welcome ceremony began once the hatch opened at 11:37 a.m. ET Friday, 2½ hours after the shuttle docked with the space station.

Hadfield was the first to float through the hatch. The new trio exchanged hugs and greetings with the existing crew upon entering the station, then fielded congratulatory calls from family and Mission Control officials.

'It's like going up to an attic and discovering a treasure you've forgotten about.'—Chris Hadfield, Canadian astronaut

"It's like going up to an attic and discovering a treasure you've forgotten about," said Hadfield on the phone with his family. "It's just magic."

Each newcomer spoke to members of their families from Mission Control in Moscow. Marshburn's daughter asked him to do a flip in the zero-gravity space station, which he did, much to the amusement of the audience in Moscow and the new crew.

Hadfield's son commented that his father's face was puffy and wondered if it was from smiling too much.

"Yeah, we've been smiling a lot," Hadfield said. "It was just a heck of a ride for the three of us. It's like being on a crazy dragster."

Chris Hadfield was the first of the newcomers to enter through the hatch at the International Space Station. (NASA TV)

Hadfield also spoke with Paul Engel, director of communications for the Canadian Space Agency.

"All of Canada tuned in to watch that absolutely picture-perfect launch," said Engel. "Absolutely extraordinary. Good luck with the mission."

During his five-month visit, Hadfield will become the first Canadian to command the giant orbiting space laboratory in its 14-year history when he takes over in mid-March. Once Hadfield takes command, Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin will return home.

It's a task that former Canadian astronaut Bob Thirsk says will be challenging.

'All of Canada tuned in to watch that absolutely picture-perfect launch.'—Paul Engel, director of communications, Canadian Space Agency

He says the 53-year-old Hadfield will have to maintain crew morale and make sure the crew paces itself, adding that the long duration stay is a marathon, not a sprint

Thirsk spent six months on the space station in 2009 — a record for a Canadian astronaut.

He also says that being away from family can be tough on astronauts who spend a long period of time on the space station.

This is Hadfield's third space journey.

His first space trip was in November 1995 when he visited the Russian Space Station Mir.

His second voyage was a visit to the International Space Station in April 2001, when he also performed two spacewalks.

Hadfield, Marshburn and Romanenko return home in May.

With files from The Canadian Press

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Study suggests hands evolved to fight

A study from the University of Utah on Wednesday suggested that the size and shape of human hands evolved not only to manipulate tools, but also so that men could form fists and fight.

The study explored two facets of the fist — one, that it causes more harm to opponents, and, two, that a clenched fist buttresses hands from damage to fragile bones, muscles and tendons.

According to University of Utah biology professor David Carrier, this finding could be an answer to evolutionary questions concerning humans and innate violence.

"The role aggression has played in our evolution has not been adequately appreciated," he said.

Delicate destructive hands

Compared to our simian ancestors, humans have delicate yet destructive hands with smaller palms and fingers, and longer, stronger, more flexible thumbs. That structure enables the formation of a fist, which gives humans, particularly males with their stronger bone structure, an obvious evolutionary advantage among the great apes.

"There are people who do not like this idea, but it is clear that, compared with other mammals, great apes are a relatively aggressive group, with lots of fighting and violence, and that includes us. We're the poster children for violence," said Carrier.

'We're the poster children for violence.'—University of Utah biology professor David Carrier

Forming a close-handed battering ram allowed early human males to protect their mates and property by hammering opponents with a fist, which acted as an effective weapon in the hand-to-hand combat arsenal.

"An individual who could strike with a clenched fist could hit harder without injuring themselves, so they were better able to fight for mates and thus more likely to reproduce," said Carrier.

"If a fist posture does provide a performance advantage for punching, the proportions of our hands also may have evolved in response to selection for fighting ability, in addition to selection for dexterity."

Fists pack more punch

In an effort to record the impact of a punch, Carrier had 10 men with martial arts training hit a punching bag with slaps, shoves and punches.

Carrier found that a strike with a fist contained 1.7 to three times more force than an open-handed slap.

Also, in order to determine how human fists provide strength and stability, in a way that apes with their bigger palms and longer fingers can't, Carrier measured how much pressure a hand can take when it is clenched and unclenched.

"Because the experiments show the proportions of the human hand provide a performance advantage when striking with a fist, we suggest that the proportion of our hands resulted, in part, from selection to improve fighting performance," said Carrier.

The report also argued that fists are used as displays of threats. Carrier said that the reflexive response to anger is to form a fist to cause intimidation.

"More than any other part of our anatomy, the hand represents the identity of Homo sapiens. Ultimately, the evolutionary significance of the human hand may lie in its remarkable ability to serve two seemingly incompatible but intrinsically human functions," said the report.

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Everest gigapixel image zooms in on glacier threat

Source: glacierworks.org

A filmmaker and mountaineer has spent five years piecing together a giant gigapixel image of Mount Everest and the Khumbu glacier, showing the Himalayan peak and its surroundings in extraordinary high-resolution detail, in an effort to highlight the effects of global warming.

American filmmaker David Breashears is the executive director of GlacierWorks, a non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness of disappearing glaciers, and has climbed to the summit five times and visited the mountain 15 times.

Breashears has spent five years taking over 400 photos with a 300-mm lens and stitching them together to create the mega image — which is almost four billion pixels in size.

The image provides an interactive tour of the harsh and beautiful terrain of Everest and its surroundings. Viewers can take in the entire panorama as well as "deep zoom" in to see climbers from several kilometres away and tents at Base Camp.

The image is part of a larger project by GlacierWorks which includes precisely matched images of the glaciers today with historic images taken by turn of the century pioneering mountain photographers to demonstrate how the Himalayan landscape has changed.

"We believe this approach will foster a deep understanding of the changes at work in this remote and frozen region," said the GlacierWorks website.

One of the pioneer mountaineers Breashears cites as a source is Edward Oliver Wheeler, a Canadian from Ottawa. Wheeler joined the British Reconnaissance Expedition in 1921 as a surveyor and took images and panoramas of the glaciers using Canadian photo-topographical survey cameras.

Breashears calls the Himalayas the "canary in a coalmine of climate change" as its receding glaciers offer a stark visual representation of the effect of global warming.

There are nearly 50,000 high-altitude glaciers in the Himalayas covering almost 35,000 square kilometres.

The seasonal water run-off from the glaciers supplies most of the major river systems in Asia such as the Ganges and the Yangtze rivers.

"Although future impacts of glacial melt cannot be known, any disruption to the water supply will inevitably present challenges to the millions of people living downstream," said the website.

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Spacecraft with Chris Hadfield docks with space station

The Russian space capsule carrying Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield and two colleagues docked today at the International Space Station.

The spacecraft carrying Hadfield, NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn and cosmonaut Roman Romanenko linked up with the space station's Rassvet module at 9:09 a.m. ET.

A welcome ceremony will begin at 11:15 a.m. ET.

During his five-month visit, Hadfield will become the first Canadian to command the giant orbiting space laboratory when he takes over in mid-March.

It's a task that former Canadian astronaut Bob Thirsk says will be challenging.

He says the 53-year-old Hadfield will have to maintain crew morale and make sure the crew paces itself, adding that the long duration stay is a marathon, not a sprint

Thirsk spent six months on the space station in 2009 — a record for a Canadian astronaut.

He also says that being away from family can be tough on astronauts who spend a long period of time on the space station.

This is Hadfield's third space journey.

His first space trip was in November 1995 when he visited the Russian Space Station Mir.

His second voyage was a visit to the International Space Station in April 2001, when he also performed two spacewalks.

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Canadian Chris Hadfield blasts off into space for 3rd time

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield blasted off into space this morning aboard a Soyuz spacecraft and is on his way to the International Space Station, where he is set to make history.

Hadfield, American Tom Marshburn and Russian Roman Romanenko lifted off at 7:12 a.m. ET (6:12 p.m. local time) in the freezing steppes of Baikonur, Kazakhstan, where temperatures were hovering around –30 C.

The astronauts could be seen waving, and giving the thumbs-up inside the spacecraft.

Just a few hours after the launch, Hadfield's sons took over their father's Twitter account and posted a message. "The Soyuz launch was an incredibly emotional experience," they wrote. "Godspeed, Dad. Your achievement has literally brought us all to tears."

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield waves prior to the Soyuz launch at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday. (Dmitry Lovetsky/Associated Press)

Hadfield's sons will be posting on his Twitter account over the next few days.

The current Soyuz is an upgraded version of the unmanned spacecraft first used by the Soviet space program in 1966.

All three had been in Baikonur for the past two weeks to prepare for the trip, which includes a two-day journey to the International Space Station, where they will be in orbit for five months. Hadfield will take over command of the ISS in March — the first time a Canadian has done so.

"Yes I'll take it seriously and yes it's important for Canada, but for me as just a Canadian kid, it makes me want to shout and laugh and do cartwheels," Hadfield told CBC News recently.

The crew will spend 147 days in orbit before their scheduled landing on May 14.

Canadians at home and abroad will be watching Hadfield's journey closely. Gov. Gen. David Johnston joined other officials at the Canadian Space Agency east of Montreal on Wednesday to watch the spacecraft carrying the Canadian astronaut blast off.

"What a great day to be here at the Canadian Space Agency, a great day for Canada, a great day for the world of discovery and innovation," Johnston said. "We're so proud that Chris Hadfield is now up in space, the first Canadian to be commanding the space station."

Former Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk, who also watched the launch from the space agency, added, "Pride is what I feel. I'm part of this Canadian astronaut corps which has existed for over a quarter century now. We've taken small baby steps which have culminated today."

Hadfield, a Milton, Ont., native, still can't believe what he's about to do.

"You expect someone to come in and go, 'Wait a minute, you aren't a guy that could command a spaceship, come on.' You expect to get busted by somebody because it's just such an unlikely thing to ever happen in your life, and so it absolutely thrills me just as a person."

Influences include Star Trek

For Hadfield, it's a pinnacle of achievement that's been 20 years in the making.

A Canadian Forces fighter pilot with a mechanical engineering degree from the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ont., Hadfield was chosen to become one of four new Canadian astronauts in 1992.

Since then, he's flown on two NASA space shuttle flights and was the first Canadian to operate the Canadarm in orbit. He has done two spacewalks, and was the first Canadian to float freely in space. Training for the space station mission has consumed the past four years.

Among his many influences, he names the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey and the TV series Star Trek, recalling that one of his childhood heroes was fictional: "You know, James Tiberius Kirk commanding the Enterprise."

Hadfield says he didn't need another space flight for personal fulfilment.

"I instead feel an obligation to fulfil this role, to do this thing right. I would not have felt hard done by if I didn't get a third space flight."

Nonetheless, he is going on another space journey and orbiting for six months — quite long for a human body, which means the muscles, the heart and bones tend to atrophy.

'An incredible accomplishment'

The Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft sits at its launch pad at Baikonur, Kazahkstan, before it blasted off Wednesday morning. (Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters)

Marc Garneau, the first Canadian to shuttle into outer space, says he's proud of Hadfield's accomplishments and wishes him well.

"This is a first," he said Tuesday. "The first [Canadian] commander of the International Space Station."

"That's an incredible accomplishment. He's an incredible guy."

Thirsk, the last Canadian astronaut to go into space for a long-duration flight, said he had offered one piece of advice to Hadfield: enjoy it.

"Just to enjoy the fact that you're up there. Take time to look out the window, fly around like Superman.… Make sure you enjoy those moments. That's what you'll miss the most when you come back home."

Space music

One of the things Hadfield is looking forward to aboard the ISS is a special song set to premiere on Feb. 8, which will be featured on CBC-TV, radio and CBCMusic.ca

"It'll be really nice to be able to play music, to try and capture the experience as best I can," Hadfield said of his song about space flight, Is Somebody Singing? or ISS, which he wrote with Ed Robertson of the Barenaked Ladies.

Starting in January, CBCMusic will team up with Hadfield and Robertson to produce a series of blog posts, behind the scene photo galleries and playlists.

Also while aboard the ISS, Hadfield will also be involved with more than 130 experiments, including Microflow, a Canadian blood-sampling experiment that he compared to a hospital in a box.

With files from The Canadian Press

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