The first non-American to reach the moon is ready for a new mission.
Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansenbest known for his flight around the moon in April at NASA Artemis 2 mission, will cease to be an active astronaut in September.
Hansen, who is also a colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), will next serve as a reservist to “enable the vital work being carried out in Canada with respect to space,” the astronaut said. wrote Monday (July 6) in a statement on X.
“Our future depends on an intense continuation of Canadian innovation and exploration in space,” Hansen added. “The technological advances and economic benefits emerging from this sector are vital to our country and the world, and I am more determined than ever to advance that work.”
Space sovereignty has been the subject of renewed attention in recent months in Canada. Long-standing efforts to achieve a local launch capability, for example, received a surge in Canadian defense funding in March, with C$200 million ($140 million) offered to a spaceport under development in Nova Scotia for 10 years, more extra money to eventually put Canadian-made rockets into orbit. Hansen, an astronaut for 17 years, went to Maritime Launch Services Spaceport to attend a suborbital launch last month.
But Hansen’s role in recent years also includes significant advances in space diplomacy: In 2026 alone, he and his three Artemis 2 crewmates were seen at the White House, with representatives from congressional committees and in the president’s State of the Union addressand also made similar stops in Canadian politics. Last week he attended the national Independence Day and Canada Day celebrations.
Part of Hansen’s message at these events is evident this June 11: “Canada and the United States have been close collaborators in space exploration for more than six decades,” he said.
A long road to space
Hansen, 50, has been flying since he was 12, first with the Royal Canadian Air Cadets, according to his official. CSA Biography. He quickly graduated to gliding and private piloting before serving as a fighter pilot for the RCAF. After growing up in the London, Ontario area, somewhat close to Toronto, Hansen served in various locations across Canada, most notably as a CF-18 fighter pilot with the 441 Tactical Fighter Squadron and 409 Tactical Fighter Squadron. Hansen also worked on NORAD (North American Air Defense) projects as a combat operations officer with 4 Wing Operations.
In May 2009, at the age of 33, Hansen was one of two recruits to the Canadian Astronaut Corps selected that year, and earned his full astronaut qualification in 2011. To the surprise of many, he did not receive his first flight assignment for an incredible amount of time. 14 years after the initial selection, when the Artemis 2 crew announced on April 3, 2023.
The wait was due in part to Canada having approximately 2% contribution toward International Space Station (ISS), through robotics programs like Canadarm2, means a CSA astronaut can fly there on a long-duration mission every five to six years at current flight rates. (Some Canadians have also arrived at the station as private astronauts or on behalf of NASA.)
For perspective: During Hansen’s tenure, he was not fully qualified for a CSA mission when Robert Thirsk flew to the ISS in 2009 (before the space shuttleretirement, when long-duration missions were assigned differently), or during most of the training Chris Hadfield undertook before his own 2012-13 mission to the orbital laboratory.
David Saint-Jacques, Hansen’s slightly older classmate from 2009, flew in 2018-19. The next mission to the ISS, carried out by CSA astronaut Josh Kutryk in September, will have a longer gap because ultimately, and simply put, they changed it from a delay boeing Starliner mission to SpaceXCrew-13.
But astronauts never sit idly by. In addition to the usual mission support and previous work at NASA, Hansen helped develop the tools and procedures for a complex spacewalk to repair an instrument outside the ISS designed to search for elusive objects. dark matterthat NASA once described like “four years of preparation.”
Hansen also served as what he called a “the mother” for NASA’s astronaut class of 2017, a roughly two-year position to be the first Canadian administrator of its training programs.
“The responsibility is mine,” he told Space.com at the time. “If we get to the end and they don’t have the training they need, I’ll be the one to answer questions about why it wasn’t completed.”
moon work
Then program changes intervened. NASA’s human spaceflight plans beyond the ISS sharpened in 2017 to return humans to the moon, and fortunately for Artemis (as this hasn’t always been the case), the change has stuck through several presidential administration changes.
CSA was one of the first signatories of the Artemis Accordswith a hardware commitment as well. (The initial promise was a Canadarm3 robotic arm to operate on a planned space station in lunar orbit called Gateway. However, NASA recently decided to build a lunar base. instead of GatewayWhat happens next with international partners is under negotiation, although Canadarm3’s CSA contract continues with the company MDA Space).
CSA’s commitment secured two Canadian astronaut seats aboard the Artemis missions, and the consortium decided to grant Canada a seat on the first crewed mission: Artemis 2. Representatives of the Canadian space industry widely expected that would be Hansen’s mission, not only because of his qualifications, but because Canada recruited Kutryk and Jenni Gibbons in 2017, who along with Saint-Jacques were the only active astronauts at the time. Gibbons would go on to serve as CSA backup astronaut for Artemis 2, as well as CAPCOM (Capsule Communicator) during the mission’s lunar flyby, in which he served as a direct voice link between mission control in Houston and the crew of the Orion spacecraft.
But Hansen, visited by Space.com in Houston on the day he was announced As a crewmate on Artemis 2, he expressed modesty. “It’s really not about me. I have great pride in Canada,” he said, adding words he would repeat often in the years to come: “It was wonderful to see NASA, the United States, showcasing Canada as part of this mission. It’s not as a gift, but because we bring real value.”
Between training for the first lunar mission in 50 years with NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina KochHansen’s message during the three years before takeoff was one of national and international collaboration. His mission patchAs the CSA noted in a description, it included contributions with “elements of Anishinaabe culture,” as well as from Turtle Lodge on the Sagkeeng First Nation, where Hansen made a vision quest during his missionary training. Numerous Canadians played frontline roles in Artemis 2, including Gibbons as Capcom during the lunar flyby.
Artemis 2’s 10-day mission included numerous scientific, historical and cultural milestones. Astronauts traveled further from Earth than anyone ever hadfor example, and witnessed a single solar eclipse shortly after passing beyond the far side of the moon. They observed meteor flashes on the lunar surface, took high-definition photographs of the regolith and spoke to politicians, journalists and schoolchildren about their experience from space.
Furthermore, what we know today as “joy of the moon” was evident among the four astronauts. As an example, they shared an emotional group hug in front of the camera on April 6, when the world learned that a nomination for name a lunar crater for Wiseman’s late wife, Carroll.
At a NASA event Shortly after the mission landed on April 10, Hansen said staying on the “joy train” as a crew took effort, but added that what everyone witnessed among the crew was also possible on Earth. “We are a mirror that reflects you,” he said.
