Meet Commander Chris Hadfield. He’s a bitchin’ guitarist, as you can see, and also a Canadian astronaut.
Yes, Canada has astronauts. Why wouldn’t it?
He was launched back in December to the International Space Station, where he’ll be living for five months and conducting important research. When he’s not Tweeting from space. Yes, somebody is currently tweeting from space. But even better was his response to William Shatner.
Shatner, in addition to being a large ham, is also Canadian. Whether Canada should be credited or blamed for this probably depends on how much of a Star Wars fan you are, but he still holds great affection for the land of his birth and its scientists.
But he was also confused about whether Hadfield was actually tweeting from space, so he asked him. This was Hadfield’s response:
@williamshatner Yes, Standard Orbit, Captain. And we’re detecting signs of life on the surface.
— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) January 3, 2013
Yes, we live in a world where an actor who plays a starship captain can be gently snarked from space by an actual astronaut.
We love the future.
Editorial Note: Apparently there is some confusion as to the nature of my joke about Shatner, wherein I imply that fans of Star Wars may not necessarily be fans of Star Trek. So either that rivalry has completely died and I’m old, or the wording was confusing. I apologize for the latter, and the former I deny vigorously. Now where’s my walker?