Opinion

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This article was published 06/06/2015 (3759 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Start the countdown, kids, because the Great White North is heading back to outer space.

Canadian fans of space travel were over the moon this week when it was announced this country’s two newest astronauts will be blasting off within the next decade.

Lt.-Col. Jeremy Hansen, 39, of London, Ont., and Dr. David Saint-Jacques, 45, a Quebec City native, joined the Canadian astronaut corps in 2009 after a selection process involving 5,351 candidates and are the only current active members.

One of our astronauts-in-training will fly to the International Space Station by 2019 and the other by 2024. The announcement came after Ottawa agreed to extend its involvement in the station — a joint endeavour among space agencies from Canada, the U.S., Japan, Russia and the European Union — until 2024.

Industry Minister James Moore, who announced the news at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa, said it signals our involvement in future space missions to the moon, Mars and beyond.

“It confirms a great future for Canada in space for years to come,” he said.

So Canada’s future in outer space is rocketing in the right direction, which is great news because the True North has a glorious history among the stars, including our personal five favourite Canadian space milestones:

5

The milestone: The first Canadian satellite

The moment: Sept. 29, 1962

THE MISSION: Quick, name the fourth country in outer space.

If you said Canada, you get some extra maple syrup on your pancakes. When a two-stage Thor-Agena B rocket blasted off at 2:06 a.m. EST from the Pacific Missile Range at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, it marked Canada’s official entry into the space age. The rocket was carrying a 145-kilogram Canadian satellite bearing the name Alouette 1. It’s official mission was to investigate the properties of the top of the ionosphere, where thin gases carrying electrical charges flow around our planet, and the dependence of those properties on geographical location, season, and time of day. Alouette 1 was developed as the result of an invitation from the newly formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1958 seeking international collaboration in its budding satellite program. The small spacecraft was advanced for its time, containing new technologies such as transistors and solar cells. The website of the Canadian Space Agency says Alouette 1 was a huge success “as the satellite eventually stretched its one-year design life into an unprecedented 10-year mission, producing over one million images of the ionosphere in the process.” After 10 years, it was switched off, though it could remain in orbit for 1,000 years.

4

The milestone: The legendary Canadarm

The moment: Nov. 13, 1981

THE MISSION: So you’ve just built a space shuttle.

Congratulations! Now, how are you going to get all that heavy equipment out of its cargo bay and into space? Enter the Remote Manipulator System, a 15-metre, 410-kilogram remote-controlled mechanical arm famously dubbed the “Canadarm,” because, hey, it was developed by Canadian industry under the guidance of the National Research Council. Kind of like a giant robotic arm with a wrist, elbow and shoulder, it was initially viewed as a glorified construction crane, but over 90 flights between 1981 and 2011, the Canadarm proved to be the shuttle’s invaluable righthand man, or robot. It first went into space on the Columbia — the second of NASA’s shuttle missions — and has been hailed by the Canadian Space Agency as “Canada’s most famous robotic and technological achievement.” During its career, it deployed, captured and repaired satellites, ferried astronauts, moved cargo and maintained equipment. The original arm has retired, but it’s legacy continued in 2001 when it’s bigger, smarter sequel, Canadarm 2, was sent to help assemble the International Space Station. The next generation arm is 17 metres long and remains on the station to conduct maintenance, move supplies and help astronauts working in space.

3

The milestone: The first Canadian woman in space

The moment: Jan. 22, 1992

THE MISSION: Born Dec. 4, 1945, in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., Roberta Lynn Bondar has compiled a resume so impressive and extensive it could stretch from here to the moon, which seems appropriate.

In a nutshell, she has degrees in zoology and agriculture, experimental pathology, a doctorate in neurobiology and a medical degree. But we wouldn’t be talking about her today if it wasn’t for a dream to blast into space. “When I was eight years old, to be a spaceman was the most exciting thing I could imagine,” Bondar declares on her website. That childhood dream became a reality in 1992 when she rocketed into the cosmos as a payload specialist on board the Shuttle Discovery where Canada’s first female astronaut conducted more than 40 advanced scientific experiments for 14 nations as part of the first International Microgravity Laboratory Mission in space. Back on Earth, she spent a decade leading a team of NASA researchers examining data from astronauts on 24 space missions to better understand the body’s ability to recover from exposure to space. She has received countless honours, and last year an Ottawa band dubbed Roberta Bondar agreed to change its name after receiving a “friendly” lawyer’s letter asking them to make sure the public wasn’t mistaking the admiring rockers for the pioneering rocketeer.

2

The milestone: The first Canadian to walk in space

The moment:April 19, 2001

THE MISSION: For the record, Chris Hadfield has done a lot of cool stuff.

In 1995, the veteran test pilot, raised on a corn farm in southern Ontario, took his first shuttle flight and became the only Canadian to board the Russian space station Mir. On March 13, 2013, he became the first Canadian to command a spaceship as commander of the International Space Station during the second portion of a five-month stay in space. On that mission, he became a global social-media phenomenon with a video featuring his zero-gravity rendition of David Bowie’s song Space Oddity. Most exciting, in April 2001, Hadfield and his crewmates aboard the shuttle Endeavor delivered and installed Canadarm 2 on the space station. During the 11-day flight, he performed two spacewalks, becoming the first Canuck to voluntarily leave a working spaceship and float freely in space. His second spacewalk took seven hours and 40 minutes to make repairs to the station. Here’s how he describes it: “Nothing compares to going outside for a spacewalk. Nothing compares to being alone in the universe… suddenly you do this one step, and suddenly you are in a place that you hadn’t conceived how beautiful this could be. How stupefying this could be.” And to think he took basic flight training in Portage la Prairie.

1

The milestone: The first Canadian in space

The moment: Oct. 5, 1984

THE MISSION: Nothing about the year 1984 — not even Ghostbusters and Purple Rain — sets our hearts aflutter more than remembering that it was the year the first Canadian was strapped in for a trip into outer space.

As a naval officer with the Canadian Forces, Marc Garneau spent 10 years as a combat systems engineer designing a simulator to train officers in the use of missile systems aboard destroyers. In December 1983, he was selected as one of Canada’s first group of six astronauts. A few months later, he became No. 1 — a payload specialist on the shuttle Challenger, an eight-day mission that orbited the Earth 133 times and saw our first astronaut test the vision system designed to be the eyes of the Canadarm. He returned to space in 1996 and 2000 on board the Endeavour, becoming the only Canadian to make three trips into space. In 2000, he used the robotic arm to install the first four solar panels on the International Space Station. In all, he logged 677 hours off this planet. He’s now the Liberal MP for Westmount-Ville-Marie and recently visited an Ontario school named in his honour where he talked about the joy of weightlessness. “It’s kind of a magical feeling… I realized all of us live on this planet. And guess what: there’s nowhere else to go,” he said.

Speaking of places to go, it’s cool that two more Canadians will be heading for space in the next decade, but as any science-loving patriot will tell you, it’s important to remember they aren’t going where no Canadian has gone before.

doug.speirs@freepress.mb.ca