Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield has posted a new video from the International Space Station that is part love letter, part thank-you note, and part farewell opus as the clock ticks down before his trip home from space Monday night.

Scheduled to return aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket at 10:30 p.m. ET tonight, Hadfield is coming down from a five-month stay aboard the ISS. For the past three months, the 53-year-old astronaut served as commander of the space station -- the first Canadian to ever do so. He officially handed over command to a Russian colleague on Sunday.

"Who would have thought that five months away from the planet would make you feel closer to people," Hadfield says in the video, which runs just under two minutes and features images and video clips from some of his most memorable moments.

"And not closer because I miss them, but just closer because seeing them this way and being able to share it with them has allowed me to get a direct reflection back -- immediate, from so many people -- that it makes me feel like I'm actually there with people; that we're having a conversation; that this experience is not individual but that it's shared and it's mutual and it's worldwide."

Hadfield has used social media to share his experiences in space and interact with Canadians throughout his trip, whether posting videos, images or taking part in question-and-answer sessions with school groups.

Featured in the video posted Monday are clips showing Hadfield demonstrating the behaviour of a wet wash cloth when wrung out in space, an experiment showing how people "cry" in space and footage of him leading one million students in song -- from space, of course.

They were among Hadfield's most popular, most-watched posts.

"The space station is an outpost; it's right out at the edge of the human experience," Hadfield says in the video, with the Earth looming large behind him, visible through two windows in the ISS.

"It's a very select, tiny group of people that are here, making it occupied, making it work. But it's austere, the work is challenging and fun, the opportunity and future is tremendous. But it's late, I need to go to bed, I've got work to do tomorrow.

"This view is magnetic and mesmerizing but from the bottom of my heart, thank you."

Here are links to some of the most popular Hadfield-related posts on CTVNews.ca