Jeremy Hansen, a colonel and CF-18 pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force, has been selected to become the first Canadian to venture further into space and orbit the moon.
NASA and the Canadian Space Agency made the long-awaited announcement Monday, introducing the four astronauts who will steer the next stage of an ambitious plan to establish a long-term presence on the moon.
91裸聊视频淚 am left in awe of being reminded what strong leadership, setting big goals, with a passion to collaborate and a can-do attitude can achieve, and we are going to the moon together,91裸聊视频� Hansen said after the announcement. 91裸聊视频淟et91裸聊视频檚 go!91裸聊视频�
The other three astronauts on the Artemis II mission are all American: Christina Hammock Koch, Victor Glover and G. Reid Wiseman.
91裸聊视频淚t91裸聊视频檚 difficult to pick just four from a group that by its very definition attracts the best and the brightest that humanity has to offer,91裸聊视频� said Norm Knight, chief of NASA91裸聊视频檚 flight director office.
Knight said the astronauts will be the 91裸聊视频渇orerunners as humanity looks to find its place among the stars.91裸聊视频�
Artemis II, as it91裸聊视频檚 known, is currently slated to launch as early as November 2024 and will be the first crewed mission to the moon since the final Apollo mission took flight in 1972.
The crew will first orbit Earth, and then rocket hundreds of thousands of kilometres for a figure-8 manoeuvre around the moon before their momentum brings them home.
Vanessa E. Wyche, director of NASA91裸聊视频檚 Johnson Space Center, home base for America91裸聊视频檚 astronaut corps, said this mission represents the culmination of years of hard work and dedication by NASA and its partners.
91裸聊视频淯nder Artemis, we will explore the frontiers of space and push the boundaries of what is possible,91裸聊视频� she said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Hansen will write a page of history as the first Canadian, and first non-American, to step on the moon.
91裸聊视频淚91裸聊视频檓 very, very excited to see that a Canadian has been chosen to actually go to the moon. It91裸聊视频檚 a major event for us,91裸聊视频� he said, giving credit to Hansen and calling him an 91裸聊视频渆xceptional individual91裸聊视频� who 91裸聊视频渨ill do all Canadians proud.91裸聊视频�
The plan is to put a man and woman on the moon in 2025 in service of the ultimate goal: eventually dispatching astronauts to Mars.
President Joe Biden articulated the vision last month in his speech to Parliament, seizing on the Artemis mission as a towering symbol of limitless potential for Canada, elbow-to-elbow with the U.S.
91裸聊视频淲e choose to return to the moon, together,91裸聊视频� Biden enthused, invoking the famous words of John F. Kennedy in 1962.
91裸聊视频淗ere on Earth, our children who watch that flight are going to learn the names of those new pioneers. They91裸聊视频檒l be the ones who carry us into the future we hope to build: the Artemis generation.91裸聊视频�
Canada91裸聊视频檚 Industry Minister Fran莽ois-Philippe Champagne echoed a spirit of co-operation Monday, telling the Houston audience the two countries can accomplish 91裸聊视频渂ig things91裸聊视频� together.
91裸聊视频淚 know Canadians could not be more proud,91裸聊视频� he said.
Canada is designing, building and operating a lunar utility vehicle to support operations on the mission.
91裸聊视频淭his is more than just about going back to the moon, this is about investing in the future,91裸聊视频� Champagne said. 91裸聊视频淭his is about possibilities, this is about seizing the opportunities of the space economy from health and food security, to climate change, and much more.91裸聊视频�
Hansen, 47, from London, Ont. is one of four in Canada91裸聊视频檚 current astronaut corps.
He said American leadership and Canada91裸聊视频檚 91裸聊视频渃an-do attitude91裸聊视频� are the reasons why he is going to the moon.
91裸聊视频淚t is not lost on any of us that the United States could choose to go back to the moon by themselves, but America has made a very deliberate choice over decades to curate a global team,91裸聊视频� he said.
He told the crowd gathered at the announcement thousands of Canadians have risen to the challenge of bringing value to space exploration.
91裸聊视频淎ll of those have added up to this moment where a Canadian is going to the moon with our international partnership, and it is glorious,91裸聊视频� he said.
Another member of Canada91裸聊视频檚 astronaut corps is David Saint-Jacques, an astrophysicist and medical doctor from Montreal and the only member of the group who91裸聊视频檚 already been to space.
Saint-Jacques, 53, flew to the International Space Station in 2018. He was selected for the corps in 2009 alongside Hansen.
Joining Hansen and Saint-Jacques in 2017 were test pilot and Air Force Lt.-Col. Joshua Kutryk, 41, from Fort Saskatchewan, Alta., and Jennifer Sidey-Gibbons, 34, a mechanical engineer and Cambridge University lecturer from Calgary.
91裸聊视频淭his is a big moment for humanity,91裸聊视频� Champagne said Sunday after touring the Johnson Space Center, where he had a chance to chat with astronauts and visit Mission Control.
91裸聊视频淭his time Canada is writing history with our American friends 91裸聊视频� it91裸聊视频檚 not even a new chapter. For me, it91裸聊视频檚 almost like a new book in space exploration.91裸聊视频�
On the ground, Canada is engaged in a variety of cutting-edge research endeavours that will be of mutual benefit to Artemis, Champagne said.
In the 91裸聊视频淒eep Space Food Challenge,91裸聊视频� launched in 2021, participants must develop ways to produce food in the harsh environments of deep space with few resources 91裸聊视频� think Matt Damon in 91裸聊视频淭he Martian91裸聊视频� 91裸聊视频� that will one day be necessary to sustain life.
Those challenges will only become more difficult as Artemis moves into its later stages, which include a long-term presence on the moon and ultimately voyaging to Mars.
91裸聊视频淎s one scientist only recently said, 91裸聊视频楾he science of today is the economy of tomorrow,91裸聊视频�91裸聊视频� Champagne said. 91裸聊视频淏y increasing the complexity, that91裸聊视频檚 why we push the boundaries of science and innovation.91裸聊视频�
Former astronaut and now-retired Quebec MP Marc Garneau, who back in 1984 became the first Canadian to ever go to space, said Biden91裸聊视频檚 speech left him with a 91裸聊视频渇lashback91裸聊视频� to another seminal moment in Canada-U.S. space relations.
Garneau91裸聊视频檚 maiden Space Shuttle flight was still three weeks away when he got an invitation to go to the White House along with two of his fellow crew members to meet the U.S. president.
As it turned out, he wasn91裸聊视频檛 the only Canadian meeting Ronald Reagan that day in the Oval Office. So too was Canada91裸聊视频檚 newly elected prime minister, Brian Mulroney, whose friendship with Reagan has since become the stuff of bilateral lore.
91裸聊视频淲e were invited to the White House 91裸聊视频� to the Oval Office, in fact 91裸聊视频� and met with the president and the new prime minister as they met for the first time,91裸聊视频� Garneau recalled.
91裸聊视频淭hat was an example of space being one of those things that exemplifies how Canada and the United States have been really, really good partners 91裸聊视频� and how close our two countries really are with respect to space, and in other ways as well.91裸聊视频�
Canada and NASA have been working together since the early 1960s and the headiest days of the U.S. space program, when Canada91裸聊视频檚 first satellite was launched on a U.S. rocket, Garneau said.
The Canadarm, that iconic, Maple Leaf-emblazoned fixture of the shuttle program, would later cement Canada91裸聊视频檚 status as a country the U.S. could count on.
91裸聊视频淚t91裸聊视频檚 built on the fact that Canada has always been a reliable, dependable partner that has delivered what it said it would do,91裸聊视频� Garneau said.
91裸聊视频淲e have an incredibly good reputation from that point of view.91裸聊视频�
91裸聊视频擩ames McCarten, The Canadian Press
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