If you reach for the moon, no matter what happens in your life, you can say you were out amongst the stars.
Col. Jeremy Hansen is scheduled on Wednesday, as they used to say on Star Trek , “to boldly go where no man (or woman) has gone before.”
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And not just going to a place where Canadians haven’t been. Where Artemis II is planning to travel, no humans have ever been. This is one special, historic Canadian moment in this country’s almost 160-year history.
Terry Fox, Tommy Douglas, Sir Frederick Banting, Ferguson Jenkins, Celine Dion, Rick Hansen, Alexander Graham Bell, Billy Bishop, fellow astronauts Marc Garneau, Roberta Bondar, Julie Payette, Chris Hadfield, Guy Laliberté, William Shatner have all gone far.
Hansen is on track to do something even bigger and go even farther.
That’s a small, elite and prestigious club of Canadian greats Hansen is about to ascend to once his Artemis II rocket is cleared to head out into space as it is scheduled to do Wednesday evening.
In fact, the 50-year-old Canadian Space Agency astronaut will be in his own orbit and a place where no fellow patriot has ever been able to boast.
Historic trip to moon
“It’s a pretty historic way to go to the moon,” fellow Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk told The Canadian Press. “It’s the first time that crews have gone back there since Apollo.”
Space exploration is a team effort. 🤝💫 @Astro_Jeremy thanks the Canadians and people who helped make his journey to Artemis II possible.
— Canadian Space Agency (@csa_asc) March 31, 2026
Music: Touch the Sky, Emm Grynerhttps://t.co/uSvq4KPdWe
This will be the first time a Canadian has travelled outside of the earth’s low orbit and way out into outer space.
As accomplished as any list of successful Canadians you want to compile, none of them can say they have been to the moon. The the London, Ont., former Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 fighter jet pilot has been asked to do get there in this much-anticipated mission that will see a crew not only go to take a look at the world’s closest rock for the first time in half a century, but will fly past it further into space than man or woman ever has before.
Wow.
“After years of preparation and training, we are finally here,” Mission Specialist Hansen said in a video posted to X in both official languages. “It’s been a privilege to train side my Artemis 11 crew mates and, of course, my CSA colleague Jenni Sidey-Gibbons (37, of Calgary) who has done a tremendous job as my backup,” which incudes communicating with him from ground control preparing for “future lunar missions.”
Remember her name. Sidey-Gibbons may one day be the first Canadian to walk on the moon — or even live on it since the purpose of Artemis 11 is to be an instrument helping set up a lunar human civilization.
Who will be first Canadian to walk on moon
If it’s not engineer Sidey-Gibbons, perhaps it will be some young person with big dreams, a high-achieving work ethic, watching this mission.
The sky, or space, is no limit. Aim high. Think big.
“My hope is Canadians everywhere come together and watch this mission unfold,” said Hansen, a husband and father of three, adding also his desire is “that those who remember the Apollo era feel that same spark once again and that young Canadians see what is possible when we dream big.”
Hansen, who signed up with London, Ont.’s 614 Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron, was one of those young people once with large dreams.
With his NASA astronaut crewmates Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, he’s set to make one more of his dreams come true.
Dream big and aim higher
The countdown is on down in Florida at the Kennedy Space Center and in Canada where people are planning to gather together for a launch party — as they are doing at a joint event between Let’s Talk Science, University of Toronto-St. George campus, Melon D’Oh La La, and The STEAM Sisters at the University of Toronto, with the hopes this already delayed mission hits its post-6 p.m. April 1 blast-off window and gets this historical flight roaring to new heights.
CSA astronaut David Saint-Jacques is one of the few people who has observed our planet from aboard the @Space_Station.
— Canadian Space Agency (@csa_asc) March 30, 2026
He is also one of the astronauts in ‘’THE INFINITE’’, an immersive trip currently in Mississauga, ON.https://t.co/4ZZUIGp3uQ
📷: SPACE EXPLORERS: THE INFINITE pic.twitter.com/bCswwsKL3y
With so much of the planet at war, hopefully collectively people can park their hostilities for a few minutes and watch this thing fire off into the history books for both Canada and the whole world.
“When we aim high and work together we can achieve incredible things in space and here on earth,” Hansen said.
God speed, Jeremy. Send us a tweet of the view way up there.
And hopefully you can hear and see us in the Great White North cheering for you with Canadian pride as we add your name to our special list of Canuck legends.