Jeremy Hansen

When NASA announced the crew of Artemis II in April 2023, one name made history before the rocket ever left the ground. Colonel Jeremy Hansen, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut, was assigned to become the first Canadian, and the first non-American, to travel beyond low Earth orbit. In April 2026, he did it.

Artemis II launched on April 1, 2026, carrying four astronauts around the Moon and back on a nearly ten-day voyage. For Hansen, it was the culmination of a lifetime spent preparing for the unknown—from model airplanes in London, Ontario, to the cockpit of a CF-18 fighter jet, and finally, to the bridge of a lunar-bound spacecraft.

Precision Under Extreme Stress

Before space, Hansen mastered the skies as a fighter pilot. Flying supersonic jets at low altitude taught him the kind of split-second decision-making that NASA values. He accumulated over 2,500 hours of flight time in more than 20 aircraft types, serving as an instructor and a leader in the Royal Canadian Air Force.

The mission profile was ambitious. On April 6, 2026, they completed the lunar flyby and surpassed Apollo 13's farthest-human-spaceflight record. For Canada, this wasn't just a flight; it was a return on decades of investment in space technology and robotics, proving that deep space has room for everyone willing to work for it.