{"id":15738,"date":"2026-03-30T22:46:38","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T22:46:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/?p=15738"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:48:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T22:48:24","slug":"canadian-astronaut-jeremy-hansen-set-to-make-history-on-artemis-ii-moon-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/canadian-astronaut-jeremy-hansen-set-to-make-history-on-artemis-ii-moon-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian Astronaut Jeremy Hansen Set to Make History on Artemis II Moon Mission"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen<\/strong> is poised to make history this week as the first Canadian and first non-American to travel beyond low-Earth orbit<\/strong>, joining NASA\u2019s Artemis II mission to the Moon.<\/p>\n

The mission could launch as early as Wednesday evening from Kennedy Space Center in Florida<\/strong>, marking a major milestone in the new era of lunar exploration. Hansen will fly as a mission specialist<\/strong> alongside NASA astronauts Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialist Christina Koch<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Artemis II will be the first crewed mission to travel to the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972<\/strong>, ending more than five decades without human journeys beyond Earth\u2019s orbit.<\/p>\n

A 10-day journey around the Moon<\/h3>\n

The four-person crew will spend about 10 days in space<\/strong> aboard NASA\u2019s Orion spacecraft. Unlike the Apollo missions, Artemis II will not land on the Moon<\/strong>. Instead, the spacecraft will travel around the Moon using a free-return trajectory<\/strong>, slingshotting around the lunar surface before returning to Earth and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n

Experts say the mission is designed to test systems and rebuild operational knowledge needed for future lunar landings.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the process in establishing a greater understanding of operations around and on the moon is rebuilding a lot of the knowledge that was lost for more than 50 years,\u201d said Jonathan Kelly, an aerospace professor at the University of Toronto.<\/p>\n

First step toward Mars<\/h3>\n

The Artemis program is intended to go far beyond the Moon. According to former NASA chief economist Alexander MacDonald, Artemis II represents the first step toward long-term deep-space exploration<\/strong>, including eventual missions to Mars.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ambitions are much greater,\u201d MacDonald said. \u201cThis is the first step to a larger program that will ultimately go on to Mars.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASA recently unveiled plans that include regular lunar missions and at least one Moon landing per year starting in 2028<\/strong>, along with the construction of a permanent lunar base by 2030<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s role in the new lunar era<\/h3>\n

Canada\u2019s participation in Artemis highlights the country\u2019s long-standing expertise in space robotics and satellite technology<\/strong>. Canadian technology will play a key role in building the Lunar Gateway<\/strong>, the planned space station that will orbit the Moon.<\/p>\n

The Gateway will use Canadarm3<\/strong>, the next generation of the iconic Canadian robotic arms that have supported space missions for decades. Canada\u2019s contribution to this technology helped secure Hansen\u2019s place on the Artemis II crew.<\/p>\n

Calls for greater space investment<\/h3>\n

Hansen\u2019s historic flight also comes as Canada reassesses its investment in the space sector. Earlier this month, the Canadian government announced $200 million for a new spaceport in Nova Scotia<\/strong> aimed at enabling independent satellite launches.<\/p>\n

Despite these steps, Canada still ranks last in public space spending among OECD Space Forum member countries<\/strong>, according to recent data.<\/p>\n

Supporters of increased investment argue that the space industry could boost technological innovation and help address long-standing productivity challenges in Canada\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is how you push frontiers and the envelopes,\u201d MacDonald said. \u201cWe have an incredible group of engineers and scientists, and we need to give them a hard problem and give them the resources to solve it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen is poised to make history this week as the first Canadian and first non-American to travel beyond low-Earth orbit, joining NASA\u2019s Artemis II mission to the Moon. The mission could launch as early as Wednesday evening from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, marking a major milestone in the new era of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":15740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[3672,17840,17834,17842,17833,17841,17838,17836,17835,17839,17837],"class_list":["post-15738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-amat","tag-canada-space-industry-investment-news","tag-first-canadian-beyond-low-earth-orbit","tag-future-mars-exploration-artemis-program","tag-jeremy-hansen-artemis-ii-mission","tag-kennedy-space-center-artemis-ii-launch","tag-lunar-gateway-canadarm3-canada-space-robotics","tag-moon-mission-since-apollo-17","tag-nasa-artemis-ii-crew-2026","tag-nasa-moon-exploration-program-artemis","tag-orion-spacecraft-lunar-flyby-mission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swifteradio.com\/update\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}