Hadfield was inspired as a child when he watched the Apollo 11 Moon landing on TV. He attended high school in Oakville and Milton in southern Ontario and earned his glider pilot licence as a member of the Royal Canadian Air Cadets. After joining the Canadian Armed Forces, he earned an engineering degree at Royal Military College (RMC). He learned to fly various types of aircraft in the military and eventually became a test pilot, flying several experimental planes. As part of an exchange program with the United States Navy and United States Air Force, he obtained a master's degree in aviation systems at the University of Tennessee Space Institute.