‘A stepping stone:’ Canadian astronaut eager to visit the moon

Canada, we’ll soon have liftoff.

Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen was in Regina on Thursday, talking with students at the First Nations University of Canada about his trip to space in 2025.

Jeremy Hansen. (Gillian Massie/980 CJME)

The project he’s part of is Artemis II, which has a goal of establishing a long-term presence on the moon for the first time.

“This is just a stepping stone in the Artemis program, which will eventually return humans to the surface of the moon,” said Hansen. “And we have our eye on Mars.”

Hansen will become the first Canadian astronaut to journey to the moon when Artemis II takes off next year.

He said the reason they’re working on this mission is to push humanity to accomplish some big goals.

“(They’re) goals that are big enough to bring people together, not just from one country but from around the world,” said Hansen who, as a fighter pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force, trained at 15 Wing Moose Jaw.

He’ll go into space wearing a mission patch designed by Anishinaabe artist Henry Guimond from the Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba. In a social media post, Hansen said he would wear the patch “with humility as a way to recognize the Indigenous Peoples of Canada, the first explorers.”

“In the patch, you see the seven sacred laws, which are really instructions for us (and) reminders for us of what to aspire to as humans,” he said Thursday, noting the patch is an important reminder of how he would like to walk and the example he would like to strive to represent.

Here’s some more details on the patch. https://t.co/17xU6SIwqV

— Gillian Massie (@massie_gillian) February 8, 2024

The mission to the moon will be Hansen’s first time in space.

“My three crewmates have all flown once; they’ve all flown to the International Space Station,” he said. “There is a lot of experience that I can lean on.”

Hansen did admit that he is feeling some nerves before he makes his first flight into space.

“Yeah, but I don’t lay in bed awake at night at all. I’m not worried. I’m not in a state of worry,” said Hansen. “But we spend a lot of time talking about the risks and as we go through each system and each profile, we’re always looking at what could go wrong here, how we could mitigate it (and) how these things could stack up.”

Kids were pulled out of school so they could meet Hansen, and he said that was a humbling feeling.

“I know it’s important because the story I shared with them is that I was inspired by something as simple as a photograph,” said Hansen. “I saw a photo of a human standing on the moon and it changed my path that I put myself on.

“Now I look back and people lifted me up to achieve my goals, so I am well aware that just by spending time with people and sharing that, you might impact their lives.”

The kids who were in attendance told 980 CJME that they were excited to hear from Hansen and that their favourite part was when he answered all the questions about being an astronaut.

— With files from 980 CJME’s Gillian Massie