Canada goes to the Moon
The Artemis II mission will replace Apollo.
For the first time since 1972, NASA and now also Canadian Space Agency astronauts will embark on an exploratory Artemis II mission, where they will orbit the moon. The mission will include three people from NASA and one from the Canadian Space Agency.
Colonel Jeremy Hansen of the Royal Canadian Air Force will join the mission.
The list of Canadian astronauts included four names: Jeremy Hansen, Jennifer Sidey-Gibbons, Joshua Kutryk and David Saint-Jacques. There are 41 people on NASA's list.
David Saint-Jacques and Jeremy Hansen joined the astronaut team in 2009, with Saint-Jacques spending 204 days on the International Space Station in 2018-2019. This is the longest Canadian mission to date.
Jennifer Sidey-Gibbons and Joshua Kutryk joined the astronauts in 2017, and the pair have since been training vigorously for future flights.
The astronauts mostly work at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Sometimes they return to Canada periodically to participate in various activities and encourage young Canadians to pursue their education in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).
Project Artemis-I, the first test of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion crew capsule, was launched in November as part of a 25-day mission around the moon.
More than 50 years have passed since the last Apollo 17 lunar mission. The new Artemis project, part of NASA's exploration program, will return humans to the moon by 2025. This time, the expedition will include a woman.
