OTTAWA — You’re at a beach house in Florida. You are in quarantine. And then he says his final farewell to his family. It’s all orders from the boss. Because your boss is sending you on a mission from which you may never return.
OTTAWA — You’re at a beach house in Florida. You are in quarantine. And then he says his final farewell to his family.
It’s all orders from the boss. Because your boss is sending you on a mission from which you may never return.
Why on earth would you say yes to that?
That’s the question Jeremy Hansen kept asking himself as he prepared to depart on a mission around the moon.
The Canadian astronaut said he found his answer in the trajectory of those who came before him and helped give this country a seat at the space exploration table.
He will become a pioneer himself, heading into deep space on NASA’s Artemis II mission, the first humans to visit the moon since 1972.
“It goes back to decisions made in Canada in the 1960s when people started having a vision of how Canada could use space to improve life on Earth,” Hansen told The Canadian Press. said in a recent interview with the company.
Canada has been invited to become the second country in the world to send humans into deep space.
These are words repeated twice by Mr. Hansen, who calls himself a science fiction buff. It’s worth it, he said.
“How did that happen? Visionaries. That’s how it happened, and it took decades of effort to get here.”
He is the only Canadian on a crewed mission to orbit the moon in September 2025. The rest are Americans.
One of them is Reid Wiseman, whom Hansen has known since 2009 because they were in the same astronaut class at NASA. The others were Victor Glover and Christina Hammock Koch, who showed up to class after them.
“I feel like I’ve known this crew for a long time, so we’re past the early stages of the relationship,” Hansen said.
He said they don’t think much about national differences and see each other as friends rather than foreigners.
NASA and the Canadian Space Agency have been working together to send astronauts into space since 1982. But as humanity turns its sights to Mars, Canadians can’t afford to cling to their current status.
“If Canada is to continue to be a meaningful partner in these efforts, we will have to continue to make visionary and very strategic investments,” Hansen said.
“And really encourage ourselves and remind ourselves that we are capable of doing these extraordinary things and not sell ourselves short.”
Hansen described himself as “very integrated,” although for a Canadian in the astronaut class it wasn’t always easy to establish himself among his American peers. are doing.
When Marc Garneau became the first Canadian to fly into space, he reportedly beat out an American astronaut who had been waiting more than a decade for his chance.
In a 2002 interview with the Globe and Mail, Garneau said he felt “a burning sensation in my back” while walking down a NASA hallway.
“I felt like I should keep a low profile, because some people might be upset about the fact that I flew 10 months after being selected in less than a year. That’s because professional astronauts “They thought it was a parachute drop,” he said. newspaper.
Hansen said he believes he is standing on the shoulders of giants like Garneau.
“The previous astronauts had built a really good reputation for us. So when I arrived, it felt like all those things, the growing pains, were already in the past. ,” Hansen said.
As for Americans, he added, “We have different cultures, but we’ve just found a way to work together.”
Hansen said creating a culture centered around good communication is the biggest challenge for the Artemis II crew going forward.
That includes intentionally making time to talk about failures, good fortune, and the possibility of ending up on the dark side of the moon doing figure-eight movements.
Astronauts often have complex conversations about how to mitigate various risks that can lead to crew loss, “but they also acknowledge that they can never eliminate risk.” doing.”
This month, Hansen said, they will undergo a stressful training course that will see them “flying around the Pacific.”
This is intended to simulate the capsule being pulled out of the Pacific Ocean by the US Navy, as will happen at the end of the eight-day mission if all goes to plan.
“I think that realization will definitely come in the days leading up to launch, when you’re saying goodbye to your family and making sure everything is going well around you,” Hansen said.
“There will definitely be moments of fear before you go.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 17, 2024.
— With files from The Associated Press.
Mickey Jurik, Canadian Press
