OTTAWA — You’re in a Florida beach house. You’re under quarantine. And you’re saying your final goodbyes to your family.
That’s all mandated by your bosses, because they’re about to send you on a mission you might never return from.
Why on Earth would you say yes to that?
It’s something Jeremy Hansen has been asking himself as he prepares to go on a mission around the moon.
The Canadian astronaut says he finds his answers in the paths of those who came before him and helped earn the country its seat at the space exploration table.
He’s set to be a trailblazer himself, heading to deep space on NASA’s Artemis II mission, humanity’s first visit to the moon since 1972.
“It strings all the way back to decisions that were made in the 1960s in Canada where people started to have a vision of how Canada could leverage space to improve lives on the planet,” Hansen said in a recent interview with The Canadian Press.
Canada has been invited to become the second country in the world to send a human into deep space.
That’s a phrase Hansen, a self-professed science fiction aficionado, repeated twice. It’s worth it, he said.
“How did that happen? Visionaries. That’s how it happened and it’s worked over decades to get here.”
He’s the only Canadian on the crewed mission that aims to fly around the moon in September 2025. The others are Americans.
One of them is Reid Wiseman, whom Hansen has known since 2009 because they were in the same astronaut class at NASA. The others are Victor Glover and Christina Hammock Koch, who came up in the class after them.
“I feel like I’ve known this crew a long time so we’re kind of past those sort of initial phases of a relationship,” Hansen said.
They don’t think much about their differences in nationality, he said, viewing each other as friends rather than foreigners.
NASA and the Canada Space Agency have jointly sent astronauts in space since 1982. But it’s not a given that the Canadians will hang on to their current stature as humanity eyes Mars.
“If Canada is going to continue to be a meaningful partner in those endeavors, we’re gonna have to continue to make visionary and very strategic investments,” Hansen said.
“And really inspire ourselves and remind ourselves that we are capable of doing these extraordinary things and not sell ourselves short.”
It hasn’t always been easy for Canadians in the astronaut class to establish themselves among their American peers, Hansen said, though he describes himself as “very integrated.”
When Marc Garneau became the first Canadian to fly to space, he reportedly beat out American astronauts who had waited over a decade for that chance.
In an interview with the Globe and Mail newspaper in 2002, Garneau said he felt “eyes burning through my back” when he walked down the halls at NASA.
“I felt I should keep a low profile because some of these people are probably resentful of the fact that, having been selected less than a year before, I flew 10 months later. That was viewed as parachuting by the professional astronauts,” he told the newspaper.
Hansen said he sees himself standing on the shoulders of giants like Garneau.
“Those prior astronauts have really built a good reputation for us. So when I showed up, I felt like all that stuff was already behind us, all those growing pains,” Hansen said.
When it came to the Americans, he added, “although we have different cultures we have just figured out how to work together.”
Creating a culture around good communication is the biggest task ahead for the Artemis II crew, Hansen said.
That includes intentionally carving out time to talk about failures, luck and possibly meeting their end on the dark side of the moon as they perform a figure-eight manoeuvre.
The astronauts often navigate complex conversations around how to mitigate different risks that could lead to the loss of the crew — “but also acknowledging you will never get the risk down to zero.”
This month, Hansen said, there will be a stressful training course that involves “bobbing around the Pacific Ocean.”
It is intended to be a simulation of their capsule being plucked out of the Pacific by the U.S. Navy, as will happen at the end of their eight-day mission — if all goes to plan.
“I think that the realizations will definitely hit me in the days leading up to launch when I’m saying goodbye to my family, when I’m making sure all my affairs are in order,” Hansen said.
“Before I go, it’ll definitely be some moments of fear.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 17, 2024.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
