. >>> all right, coming up, next, the science behind -- >> hi, i'm commander chris hatfield.ian to walk in space and i watched "the science behind" on cnn. >>> in the next hour, the president's health care law takes another hit. find out why at the top of the hour. >>> this week on "the science behind," we take a look at chris hatfield's journey in space. he spent 144 days as the commander of the international space station. that's where he learn arned the nickname "the singing astronaut requests from this per formansz from space. >>. ♪ this is ground control to major tom ♪ ♪ you've really made the grade ♪ and the papers want to know whose shirt you wear ♪ >> that's good. yeah, that's why it went viral getting more than 18 million views and making hatfield a bit of a star among astronauts and everyone else. now he's written a book. i spoke with commander hatfield earlier and i asked him what's one of the lessons that space has taught him about living life on earth? >> you know, we do one of the most dangerous things that anybody faces. riding up in a elevator, crawling on you

chris came up halfway through chris hatfield's tenure. chris hatfield became an international sensation because of his guitar playing and his downlinks to students in the classroom and everything else. chris will go home about halfway through luca's tenure. >> you look back and you say you think the job you have now is the best. talk about this. we have some video of you over the four trips you took on the space shuttle. >> yes. >> which shuttle were you on? >> i was on columbia, my first flight. >> you can comment. >> probably on columbia with now senator bill nelson, as a matter of fact. that was my very first flight into space. it was a flight immediately prior to challenger. we lost the challenger 10 days prior to this landing. my second and fourth flights were on discovery. the second was when we doe employed the space telescope. then my third flight, which was the first time i was actually the commander on a mission, that's a hubbel crew right there, with dr. kathy sullivan who is now the acting administrator and was america's first

commander chris hatfield joining me now from washington.. >> nice to see you, fredricka, thanks. >> what is the lessons space taught you about how to better live life on earth? >> you know, we do one of the most dangerous things that anybody faces, and that is riding up an elevator, crawling in on your hands and knees, and riding a rocket to space. and the real lesson from that is, how do you prepare for something that is inherently terrifying? how do you get yourself ready? because a lot of things scare people, and people are a little bit paralyzed by fear. but how do you break things down? how do you learn the lessons in advance? how do you sweat the small stuff? every little bit. >> yeah. >> so that when something really terrifying is happening, you're not panicked and waving your arms around, but, in fact, you are focused, you take all of the right actions, and you know how to make something successful. and that was part of -- one of the things i learned as an astronaut, and part of the reasons for writing the book. >> that's incredible