How many astronauts can you name? Other than the two who landed on the moon in 1969, there are probably not many. That is unless you are one of Chris Hadfield’s 586,000 Twitter followers or one of the 100,000 Facebook users who have liked his page.

The Canadian astronaut has been orbiting the Earth 16 times a day in the International Space Station (iss) since his launch last December. In March, he became the first Canadian commander of the iss — just one of many firsts. He was also the first Canadian to walk in space, floating through two spacewalks in 2001.

Last month, Hadfield described spacewalking on his Reddit “ask-me-anything” (ama) as “the most magnificent experience of my life… Just holding on with my one hand, with the bottomless black universe on my left and the world pouring by in technicolour on my right.”

This vivid and poetic prose is typical of Hadfield; he is far from a typical astronaut.

Hadfield’s most surprising first may be that he has become something of a social media celebrity. Global News called him “the most accessible astronaut in history,” and since his launch into space, he has enjoyed a growing online following.

In over four months Hadfield has sent more than 3,000 tweets from space. Many include stunning pictures of the Earth, from glowing cities by night to vast, brightly coloured desert dunes. His pictures come with playful captions: a shot of Brazilian cropland was entitled “cubist farming” and photographing the Australian Outback from space was described as like “unearthing ancient cave paintings.”

Other tweets give snapshots of Hadfield’s favourite experiments, like testing the spacecraft for fungi, bacteria, and other microscopic stowaways.

Sometimes Hadfield also tweets the banalities of life in space, like when “the waist elastic in my PJ bottoms broke! Fortunately, in weightlessness they don’t fall down. A spaceflight advantage.”

Even when he tweets about ripped socks and cleaning space toilets, Hadfield’s awe at being in space is apparent, and his excitement is infectious. He is re-tweeted prolifically, often hundreds of times per tweet. One redditor commented, “You are single handedly resurrecting people’s interest and curiosity about space.”

The Canadian Space Agency has picked up on Hadfield’s great public relations potential, posting videos of Hadfield adapting to life aboard the iss on their YouTube channel. Ever wondered how to make a sandwich in space? Use a tortilla — which leaves no crumbs — since crumbs would be a problem in a zero gravity space station, and make sure it doesn’t float away before you eat it.

His official mission is to conduct scientific research, but Hadfield has another mission of his own. He explained on Reddit that his aim is to increase public awareness and an understanding of space exploration. Social media has allowed Hadfield to offer the world a window into life in space. It’s a window he has widened, with help from a few famous friends.

Just two weeks ago, Stephen Harper moderated a live video chat between Hadfield and elementary school students, where Hadfield answered students’ questions in real time.

Early last month, the cbc released a song written by Hadfield that was performed with Ed Robertson of The Barenaked Ladies via satellite, while Hadfield was in orbit. Robertson was not immune to Hadfield’s love of space, telling the cbc that he “wanted to impart some of the wonder that Chris has imparted to me. I wanted it to be a celebration … about the connectedness of a human being on iss who looks down and sees the whole planet”.

The excitement of space research is not lost on Hadfield’s grown son Evan, who manages his father’s social media presence from Earth. “It’s such an amazing thing. It should be the most amazing thing to people right now. Of all of the squabbles we have, of all of our little fights on Earth, when you look at it from the fact that we, in a hundred years, have gone from flying for the first time to continuously, permanently living in space; that is a huge thing.”