That mirror will be inside that asteroid-detecting satellite. NASA is building it now, to protect Earth. Launching 2027. details: tinyurl.com/tedcd2ax images: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The Defector is a top-ten bestseller! Great to see! (order: chrishadfield.ca/books/the-defe…)

Yesterday I visited with my Mom, Eleanor, and listened to her recount just how hard my birth day was. I was sideways, and it took all of her strength and the doctors’ skill for us both to make it. Thanks isn’t ever enough - tell your mother how much you love and appreciate her.

Scientists chilled amino acids to -321 F/-196 C & bombarded them with high-energy gamma rays. Conclusion: life might be very near the surface of the icy geyser moons of Jupiter and Saturn. Probe launching 10 October. article: tinyurl.com/yckbfapc image: NASA

Time on the Moon passes slightly faster than on Earth - by 0.0000575 seconds per day (due to the Moon's lower gravity). That affects precise navigation, so Open Lunar Foundation is working on a Lunar Time Standard. details: tinyurl.com/mpthstkz

There are several noises I'd prefer not to hear inside my spaceship, including this one that The Boeing Company Starliner is now making.

Here's today's solar activity with Earth to scale. This image was created from over 5 hours worth of exposures using a modified telescope from my backyard. I'll share the time-lapse footage created from these images tomorrow morning.

The Moon haloed with cloud, lit by the rising Sun, glowing above the dimly lit silhouette of active volcano Pacaya and the Guatemalan highlands. photo: Francisco Sojuel

Here’s the time-lapse I promised you from yesterday’s solar activity. Complete with Earth to scale and a bonus of the sun’s rotation. This is easily one of my cleanest time-lapses I’ve managed over such a long period. Enjoy!

Airshow weekend! That's me in the F-86 Sabre, tucked-in with the CF Snowbirds a few years ago. What a privilege to fly in N America's longest-running CIAS airshow. It inspired younger me to fly. photo: Andrew Yee

Space Station morning flyover. Imagine how it feels to have done spacewalks to help build it, and to have lived there for half a year. Amazing what we can do together!

On Friday SpaceX Dragon will launch for the first private spacewalk & The Boeing Company Starliner will land uncrewed. Worth watching. Polaris NASA

Good to know more about the history of Lebanon. I'm learning a lot from the Rare Earth series: youtu.be/HqiJ58NN1cc

Nice to see Canadian space robotics in the Deadpool Movie - look closely, it even has the CANADA wordmark on it. You can take Ryan Reynolds out of the country ... (video: Deadpool & Wolverine Official Teaser, Marvel Entertainment)

Very cool that we are starting to be able to detect asteroids before they crash into Earth. And in this case, be little enough to mostly burn up in the atmosphere.

When you come inside from a spacewalk, it smells like gunpowder/hot metal. Is that a fragrance you'd want to wear?

Talking like an astronaut - good chat with Michael Rosen today on BBC 4: tinyurl.com/ytn8zkuf

Strange, blasted little fireball. We've never seen planet Mercury better than the pictures just taken by BepiColombo, a mere 100 miles/165 km above the distant, rocky surface, so near the Sun. info: tinyurl.com/j7ezsevy images: European Space Agency JAXA(Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency)