When the Moon Met Canada
Before he boarded a rocket to the moon, the Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen had a training experience that stood apart from his three NASA crew members. For four days, Mr. Hansen did not eat food or drink water. In that time, he communed with nature and sought spiritual guidance under the wing of an Indigenous elder in Manitoba, who in June 2023 led him through a rite called a vision quest. The ceremony explored teachings known as the Seven Sacred Laws, which are respect, truth, honesty, humility, courage, wisdom and love. Each attribute corresponds to a traditionally important animal like the turtle, wolf or buffalo.
“These animals represent some things that I try to think about every day,” Mr. Hansen said on Wednesday from NASA’s Orion capsule (the crew named it Integrity), during an Earth-to-space call organized by the Canadian Space Agency. He added, “For me, being in integrity is walking in accordance with these Seven Sacred Laws, and it’s just something that helps me, guides me through life.” Indigenous knowledge and other facets of Canada’s cultural identity were featured prominently during NASA’s Artemis II mission, which flew four astronauts 406,773 kilometers — the furthest distance around the moon in more than 50 years, surpassing the record set by Apollo 13. [Read my 2023 Q&A with Jeremy Hansen] It was a mission of firsts for the nation: Mr. Hansen, 50, became the first Canadian to travel that deep into space. Jenni Gibbons, the official backup astronaut, was the first Canadian to sit in NASA’s communicator role at mission control. A new space movie (“Project Hail Mary”) starring the Canadian actor Ryan Gosling was screened for astronauts before their flight. Maple-flavored cookies and the Canadian flag made their debut on the far side of the moon. “It was incredible to hear you speak French for the first time in space,” Prime Minister Mark Carney told Mr. Hansen in the televised call to space on Wednesday.
On Friday at 8:07 p.m. Eastern time, Mr. Hansen and the crew — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch of NASA — splashed down safely off San Diego. As they barreled toward the Pacific Ocean, the final three red-and-white parachutes gently delivered the vessel, plopping it onto the calm waters. My eyes filled with tears. “A perfect, bull’s-eye splashdown for Integrity and its four astronauts,” the NASA commentator Rob Navias said during a broadcast of the return, sprinkling in other descriptors throughout: hale and hearty, excellent, textbook. The flawless finish capped off 10 days of extraordinary moments for which Canada had a front-row seat.
Canada, a global leader in space robotics, had made a deal to supply a third-generation robotic arm, called Canadarm3, to NASA in exchange for a Canadian seat aboard Artemis II. Among so many remarkable moments was an exchange between the astronauts and President Trump, who Canadians have blamed for punishing tariffs and threats of annexation, that felt genuinely warm. Floating in the frictionless capsule on Monday, Mr. Hansen thanked Mr. Trump for his country’s leadership on the Artemis II program. The president named the Canadian hockey giant Wayne Gretzky, a friend, in his compliments to Mr. Hansen. “You have a lot of courage,” Mr. Trump said, adding: “I spoke to your prime minister and many other friends I have in Canada. They are so proud of you.”
The steady flow of striking images from space, interviews with the astronauts and the viral moments, starting off with the toilet problem, have influenced legions of new space fans. I stayed up late into the night to watch the first post-launch call from the astronauts, amused by the sight of Mr. Hansen, the tallest at 6 feet 2 inches, positioned horizontally next to his upright crewmates. (He has joked that Canada is getting more than its fair share of volume in the capsule.) I was also moved by Mr. Hansen’s tearful request on behalf of the crew to dedicate a moon crater to Carroll Wiseman, the wife of the NASA commander Reid Wiseman. Ms. Wiseman died of cancer in 2020. “It’s a bright spot on the moon,” Mr. Hansen said, “and we would like to call it Carroll.” The crew members hugged and wiped tears from their eyes.
For many, the Artemis II mission has offered an escape from the geopolitical turmoil here on Earth, not unlike when the Apollo program launched in 1969 and the United States was in the midst of the Vietnam War. “I can’t help but draw those analogies to this time, too,” Gordon Osinski, a planetary geologist and professor at Western University in London, Ontario, told me. Dr. Osinski first met Mr. Hansen, who is from London, in 2011. He has trained astronauts at the site of a meteorite impact crater, Kamestastin, in Labrador, that mimics lunar highlands. The Artemis project is a hopeful counter-story, Dr. Osinski said. “A lot of people have kind of latched onto this,” he said, “as a bit of a source of inspiration.”
Trans CanadaThis section was compiled by Shawna Richer, an editor on the International desk at The Times.
Vjosa Isai is a reporter for The Times based in Toronto. How are we doing? Like this email? |
