Cmdr Chris Hadfield gets into the spirit of St Patrick's Day aboard the International Space Station. Photo via his Twitter account
Cmdr Chris Hadfield, the Canadian astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS), has given Ireland special attention on St Patrick’s Day, tweeting out a greeting as Gaeilge and taking advantage of the orbiting outpost’s position above the island to snap and tweet a few photos.
“Maidin mhaith from the International Space Station! Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to the Irish all around the globe. Good morning!” Hadfield tweeted on 17 March to his more than half a million followers.
He then followed this with photographs of places in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland: Derry, Belfast, Dublin, Drogheda, Cork, Tralee, Galway and Donegal.
Hadfield has a personal connection to the Emerald Isle – his daughter is studying at Trinity College Dublin.
Aboard the ISS, Hadfield has been carrying out scientific experiments and just this past Wednesday he became commander of the ISS.
Hadfield, who has been aboard the space lab since mid-December, is due to return to Earth in mid-May.
The first photo of Ireland he tweeted on St Patrick’s Day was of Tralee, Co Kerry:
He then followed this with a shot above Derry:
Belfast, as seen from space:
Donegal, a place, Hadfield tweeted, he has only seen from space:
Galway, in the afternoon sun:
Then there’s Cork, “just visible at the edge of cloud on the coast,” tweeted Hadfield.:
Drogheda, with surrounding counties Louth and Meath obscured by cloud:
Hadfield wrapped up his St Patrick’s Day photographic tour of Ireland with this shot of Dublin:
