It is a chilly morning out here in Courtenay, B.C., so I will attempt to post a short post about an astronaut who was born in London and is now safely back on earth.
JEREMY HANSEN
There has been plenty of local news about Hansen, but here is an article about him from an American source. And to add even more CANCON, the piece is written by Mike Neufeld, an Albertan.
“Jeremy R. Hansen: First Canadian In Deep Space."
From a blog post "Smithsonian Voices” linked in the Smithsonian Magazine, March 31, 2026.
"Born in 1976 in London, Ontario, Jeremy Hansen cannot remember a time when he did not dream of being an astronaut. And now, as member of the crew of Artemis 2, he will see the far side of the Moon as they loop around it.
During Hansen’s youth, it became increasingly possible to imagine a Canadian doing such a thing. Marc Garneau became the first Canadian in space in 1984, when he flew on STS-41G as a payload specialist. NASA had made that seat available because the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) provided the Canadarm Remote Manipulator System for the Space Shuttle. Garneau flew two more missions as a mission specialist after NASA allowed non-Americans to join new astronaut classes. Other Canadians served on Space Shuttle and International Space Station (ISS) crews, most memorably when Chris Hadfield commanded the station in 2013. For that program, CSA contributed Canadarm2, a more advanced, double-ended remote manipulator system with a mobile base.
Hansen followed a classic path to the astronaut corps—he became a fighter pilot. Growing up on a farm near the mid-size city of London, Ontario, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Cadets at age 12. He earned his glider wings at age 16 and his pilot license at 17, which set his path to becoming an officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force (he is now a colonel). His eyes still set on space exploration, he graduated in 1999 from the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario, Canada’s primary service academy, with a bachelor of science in space science. He added an master of science in physics there in 2000, with a thesis on satellite tracking. After completing jet training on the CF-18 (a Canadian version of the McDonnell-Douglas F-18 Hornet), Hansen served from 2004-2009 in squadrons in Cold Lake, Alberta, that were part of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)....
When NASA asked CSA to nominate someone for the Canadian seat, Jeremy Hansen was the obvious and logical candidate. (Jenni Gibbons, from my hometown of Calgary, is his backup.) He will be not only the first Canadian to fly into deep space, but he will also be the first from any nation other than the United States. No human has left low Earth orbit since the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972. If all goes well, he will enjoy a spectacular view and help pioneer the human return to the Moon. It’s a fitting assignment for someone who has dreamed of going there since he was a small boy."
The author of the piece above is also worth noting. There is a Wikipedia entry about him, from which the following was borrowed.
"Neufeld was born in Edmonton, Alberta, in 1951. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Calgary, and a Master of Arts from the University of British Columbia in 1976 with his thesis "He who will not work, neither shall he eat": German social democratic attitudes to labor, 1890-1914. He received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1984 with the dissertation "From artisans to workers: the transformation of the skilled metalworkers of Nuremberg, 1835-1905....."
Since the 1990s, Neufeld has written several works about Wernher von Braun.
For the rationale for these London snippets see the first one:
London's Bicentennial (1826-2026)
The Bonus:
Here are some remarks from the astronauts after they returned:
Ms. Koch talked about what the word “crew” meant to her now — “a group that is in it all the time, no matter what” — and about how, when she looked at Earth from the neighborhood of the moon, it “was just this lifeboat hanging undisturbingly in the universe.”
She concluded, “There’s one new thing I know, and that is: Planet Earth, you are a crew.”
Mr. Hansen said that, if people liked how the Artemis II astronauts worked together, that joy was something everyone could share.
“I would suggest to you that, when you look up here, you’re not looking at us,” he said. “We are a mirror reflecting you. And if you like what you see, then just look a little deeper.”
from:
"Artemis II Crew Reunites With Families and Fellow NASA Astronauts: The four astronauts made an emotional return to Houston a day after splashing down in the Pacific Ocean at the end of their 10-day lunar journey," Kenneth Chang, April 11, 2026, New York Times.
