Chris Hadfield donates iconic photos from outer space to Dalhousie University

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield's famous photos from the International Space Station will soon be available to the public.

Hadfieldhas donated more than 13,000 photos to Dalhousie University in Halifax, where they will be preserved and available for educational and research purposes.

Marlo MacKay of the Dalhousie Libraries says they will be available as of Thursday, when the university will hold a public launch.

Hadfield took 45,000 photographs while circling the world's continents during a five-month mission commanding the International Space Station that ended in May 2013.

The photos and a video of Hadfield doing a cover of David Bowie's Space Oddityin the station made him an international celebrity, with 2.4 million Twitter followers.

MacKay says Dalhousie is one of two Canadian institutions to have the photos. Theother isthe Nova Scotia Community College's Centre of Geographic Sciences in the Annapolis Valley, which is using them in course work.

After the launch, the Chris Hadfield Space Photographs Collection will be open to the public through the Dalhousie Libraries' website.

"We are honoured that Chris Hadfield has entrusted the Dal Libraries to preserve his collection," said Donna Bourne-Tyson, the university librarian.

"Commander Hadfield can't be with us at the launch but he is thrilled with the work we've done so that his photos can be an ongoing resource for students and the space-curious. The potential for these photos to inspire teaching and research is limited only by our imaginations and extends far beyond Dalhousie."

A Dalhousie researcher has created an interactive map using several hundred of the donated photos.

A compilation of about 200 photos by Hadfield was turned into a book: You Are Here: Around The World in 92 Minutes.