Col. Jeremy Hansen has recently achieved a significant milestone in Canadian history by participating in NASA’s Artemis II mission over the last 48 hours, with further accomplishments expected in the near future. During an upcoming live news conference, Hansen is set to make another first for the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) by speaking directly from the Orion spacecraft, a region of outer space no other Canadian has ventured to before. Scheduled for 1:10 a.m. ET, the conference is anticipated to last approximately 20 minutes and will involve Hansen sharing his experiences of the Artemis II mission and fielding questions from Canadian journalists, as announced by the CSA.
CBC News will be streaming the live news conference, enabling viewers to witness this unprecedented event. Hansen, along with his team of astronauts including commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialist Christina Koch, embarked on their journey from Florida at 6:35 p.m. ET on Wednesday. This mission marks a critical step in NASA’s overarching plan to return humans to the lunar surface, with the crew expected to travel around the moon and back over a 10-day flight duration.
Upon entering high Earth orbit shortly after liftoff, Hansen officially became the first Canadian to reach deep space. The Artemis II mission is projected to propel the crew approximately 405,000 kilometers into space, marking the furthest distance humans have ever traveled. In the early stages of the journey, the astronauts have completed initial tests, honed their photography skills for capturing images of Earth, and addressed minor challenges aboard the crew cabin, such as communication issues, temporary toilet malfunctions, and a technical glitch with Microsoft Outlook affecting Wiseman.
If the mission unfolds as planned, the astronauts are poised to orbit the moon and witness a solar eclipse on the sixth day of their expedition. The mission is set to culminate with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, Calif., on April 10. NASA’s Artemis program, succeeding the Apollo era, is conducting its first crewed flight with Artemis II, marking the first occasion astronauts have ventured near the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.
NASA aims for this operation to lay the groundwork for Artemis IV astronauts to achieve a historic landing at the moon’s south pole by 2028, surpassing China’s planned crewed mission slated for 2030. This mission holds significant importance as it sets the stage for future advancements in space exploration and human presence beyond Earth’s orbit.