Commander Chris Hadfield: the astronaut who turned into a star Another huge success was a 20-minute interview with the actor William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk in Star Trek. When he left Earth on 23 December aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket, he was relatively unknown outside of Canada and had just 20,000 fans on Twitter. With most videos delivered with a microphone floating in front of his face, he has also revealed how astronauts shave, what sound is like in space and how to prepare a delicious meal using dried spinach. A spokesman for the Canadian Space Agency said: "We certainly didn't expect the worldwide success Chris has had. He is not really aware of the full scale of it - he certainly knows it has been successful, but I don't think he knows quite how well known he is as he has to concentrate on the work he has to do on the space station.