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Jeremy Hansen is going to the moon.
The 47-year-old Canadian astronaut was announced today as one of four astronauts – along with Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman – who will be part of NASA’s Artemis II mission.
“A Canadian is going to the moon with our international partnership, and it’s glorious,” Hansen said in an announcement Monday from NASA’s Johnson Space Center’s Ellington Field in Houston, Texas.
“We are going to the moon together. Let’s go.”
Hansen is one of four active Canadian astronauts who include Jennifer Sidey-Gibbons, Joshua Kutryk and David Saint-Jacques vying for a seat on the Orion spacecraft set for lunar orbit.
Artemis I was the first test of NASA’s mega-rocket – the Space Launch System (SLS) and the new crew capsule, Orion. Uncrewed, launched in November on a 25-day mission around the moon that was considered a success.
WATCH | Live astronaut announcement:
Astronauts will be part of the Artemis II mission, where they will orbit the moon
Artemis II is the second step in NASA’s mission to return astronauts to the lunar surface.
The astronauts will not land, but will orbit for 10 days aboard the Orion spacecraft, testing key components in preparation for the Artemis III that will put humans back on the moon in 2025. for the first time since 1972.
And, because of the orbit that Orion will be in, the four astronauts will travel farther than any previous astronaut. With Artemis I, the Orion capsule passed 434,523 kilometers from Earth. The farthest any other spacecraft has ever flown by humans was 400,171 kilometers during the Apollo 13 mission.
Canada earned a seat on Artemis II for its contribution to the Lunar Gateway, the space station that will orbit the moon. But Canada is also building a lunar rover provided by the MDA.
Represent @csa_asc at #Artemis II to the Moon is @Astro_Jeremyfrom London, Ontario.
Jeremy Hansen was a fighter pilot before joining CSA, and now works with NASA on astronaut training and mission operations. This will be Hansen’s first mission in space. pic.twitter.com/zIVetAQeFE
On Monday, Hansen noted there are two reasons Canadians want to go to the moon, adding that it “makes me smile when I say it.”
The first, he said, was the American leadership, and the decision to organize an international team.
“The second reason is Canada’s can-do attitude,” he said proudly.
Patience pays off
Born and raised in southwestern Ontario, Hansen recalled in a 2014 CSA interview that he wanted to be an astronaut.
“For as long as I can remember, I’ve been fascinated by space exploration,” he said. “I saw a photo of Neil Armstrong standing on the moon, and I wanted to see what it would be like to leave this planet, to see it from the outside.”
Now he got his chance.
WATCH | Meet Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen:
According to the CSA, Hansen joined the Air Cadet Program at age 12, and later studied space science at the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ont. He eventually became a pilot, flying a CF-18 in Cold Lake, Alta. He is still a colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Hansen was hired by CSA in 2009 along with Saint-Jacques. Since then, he has done extensive training in the High Arctic, spending six days training in a cave in Italy and another seven days 19 meters below the surface off the coast of Key Largo, Fla., as part of NASA’s Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO project).
In 2016, Hansen was the voice of Capcom (a vintage term from NASA’s Mercury program meaning capsule communicator) at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. The following year, he became the first Canadian to be responsible for the training of astronauts from Canada and the United States.
Now, Hansen will spend his time training for the mission, which will involve a spacecraft he has never flown before.
Hansen said he was proud of Canada’s role in returning to the moon.
“I’m very proud of Canada, that we have extraordinary people, a country that allows us to make an extraordinary and important contribution to international partnerships,” he told CBC News after Artemis I was launched in November.
“That we are part of going back to the moon. We will have Canada on Artemis II. It’s incredible. I’m really proud of Canada to do that.”
WATCH | Canada’s role in returning to the moon:
Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen describes Canada’s key role in new missions to the moon, from ‘amazing technology’ to ‘niche’ expertise in food delivery and emerging health care.
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