An Evening with Chris Hadfield

Join us for an evening with #1 bestselling author and astronaut Chris Hadfield!

Chris Hadfield is coming back to Winnipeg in support of his new book (Random House of Canada): an edge-of-your-seat thriller set about China's secret role in the 1970s Space Race between the US and the USSR.

For the first time in this city, Hadfield will sit down for a full conversation about his writing and career. Hosted by Winnipeg Free Press Editor Paul Samyn.

The evening will not be livestreamed so please purchase a ticket if you wish to join us.

Houston, 1975. A new Apollo mission launches into orbit, on course to dock with a Russian Soyuz craft: three NASA astronauts and three cosmonauts, joining to celebrate a new dawn of Soviet-American cooperation. But as NASA Flight Controller Kaz Zemeckis listens in from Earth, a deadly accident changes everything. Meanwhile, from a remote location in East Asia, the first Chinese spacecraft secretly launches. On board is China’s first astronaut, Fang Guojun, whose mission puts him on a collision course with the Apollo crew. As Kaz races against an enemy on the ground and for answers beyond the sky, the safety of the remaining crew hangs in the balance...

Full of intrigue and real history - including the fascinating story of Professor Tsien Hsue-shen, the “Father of Chinese Rocketry” and founder of China’s space program - Final Orbit accelerates to a thrilling conclusion that captures the beauty and terror of survival 270 miles above Earth, as could only be written by one of the most experienced astronauts alive.

Chris Hadfield is one of the most seasoned and accomplished astronauts in the world. He was the top test pilot in both the US Air Force and the US Navy, and a Cold War fighter pilot intercepting armed Soviet bombers in Canadian air space. A veteran of three space flights, he served as capsule communicator—CAPCOM—for 25 Shuttle missions, as NASA's director of operations in Russia, and as commander of the International Space Station. Hadfield's books, , and , have all been international bestsellers, and topped the charts for months in Canada. His debut novel, , became an instant #1 bestseller in his homeland.

ABOUT THE HOST:

Host Paul Samyn has been part of the Free Press newsroom for more than a quarter century, working his way up after starting as a rookie reporter in 1988. And if you count the time he spent delivering the newspaper as a boy growing up in St. James, his connection to the Free Press goes back even further. As a reporter, Paul wrote for every section of the paper, covered elections, wars overseas and the funerals of a royal princess and a prime minister. The graduate of the University of Winnipeg and Red River College helped lead the Free Press’s political coverage for a decade as its Ottawa bureau chief before being named city editor in 2007. In the summer of 2012, Paul was promoted to Editor, becoming only the 15th person to hold that office since the Free Press began publishing in 1872.

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