{"id":609182,"date":"2026-04-17T01:11:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T01:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/609182\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T01:11:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T01:11:17","slug":"astronaut-jeremy-hansen-says-artemis-ii-proves-canada-can-do-big-things-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/609182\/","title":{"rendered":"Astronaut Jeremy Hansen says Artemis II proves Canada can \u2018do big things\u2019 – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen<\/a> says his historic participation in NASA\u2019s Artemis II<\/a> lunar mission is proof that Canada can \u201cdo big things\u201d as a country and hopes it serves as inspiration for the next major achievement.<\/p>\n

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In an interview with Global News at the Johnson Space Center in Houston nearly a week after returning to Earth, Hansen said becoming the first non-American to travel in low orbit around the moon \u2014 and the overwhelming success of the mission \u2014 \u201chad very little to do with me,\u201d giving credit to the work of past and present Canadian \u201cvisionaries\u201d who made his journey possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat this should do is shine a spotlight on what we\u2019re capable of as a country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think we keep ourselves small. And there\u2019s been a rallying cry in the country, but we need to do big things. We need to set big goals. \u2026 The fact that a Canadian flew around the moon in 2026 is not because it happened last year. It happened over decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The four-person crew \u2014 commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and mission specialists Christina Koch and Hansen \u2014 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego, Calif., on April 10.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tArtemis II crew holds press conference after historic 10-day NASA lunar mission\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The 10-day flight saw astronauts travel to the moon for the first time in more than 50 years, setting a record for the greatest distance travelled by humans away from Earth. They also captured extraordinary images of parts of the lunar surface never before seen by the human eye.<\/p>\n

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Hansen said the enormity of what he experienced has still not sunk in for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day I find myself processing a new thing, remembering a new thing from the mission. So it\u2019s going to take some time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been so busy since we got here. There\u2019s so much science collection to do. Every day we\u2019ve got a full schedule. I barely feel like I\u2019ve fully caught up with my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He added it was difficult for him to choose a single standout moment, eventually listing nearly every milestone of the mission as a highlight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would have gone for any one of the amazing things we saw,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would\u2019ve gone for just the rocket ride. I would go for just that first feeling of floating in space. That first view out the window of the Earth up close, the next view of the Earth far away. Seeing the moon, starting to see a side of the moon I\u2019d never seen before, seeing the moon up close, seeing the solar eclipse behind the moon. I mean they just kept coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cAnd then setting your mind on getting back home, and seeing Earth just growing in the window slowly over the first couple of days, and then very quickly in that last day towards splashdown. And then, of course, the ride to the Pacific Ocean was one for the books.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHow Artemis II crew captivated world\u2019s attention\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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Hansen is now grateful to be back home and reconnecting with his family \u2014 particularly for returning to Earth in time to celebrate his anniversary with his wife.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat was a close one,\u201d he laughed.<\/p>\n

He said the whole experience has \u201creinforced\u201d his perspective on humanity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re on this ball in space. It\u2019s this oasis,\u201d he said. \u201cYou sit down here and you look up, it looks enormous around you, but you go out there and you look back and you\u2019re like, \u2018Oh my gosh, I\u2019ve seen it with my own two eyes.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is incredible, the human experience \u2014 the fact that we\u2019re here, we\u2019ve evolved to this point \u2014 and it also reinforces for me that we still have some work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

That work is only made possible by working together, he said \u2014 whether it be within families, communities or a team as large as NASA.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can feel powerless as an individual. You see things like, \u2018Gosh, I\u2019d love to see that be better or this be changed, but I don\u2019t know how to do it,’\u201d he said. \u201cBut the reality is that you just do the best you can, and you talk openly and you set goals with people and you join teams that are doing something creative.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did have this sense when I was in deep space, looking back at the planet that I was very insignificant. But the fact that I was there, that a human was there experiencing it, made me feel very powerful because of the collective unity that it took to push four humans there. We didn\u2019t do that, the four of us. It was this huge team, extraordinary team.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Hansen said he wants both the next generation of explorers and Canada as a whole to take inspiration from what the Artemis II mission achieved.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we should do now is we pat ourselves on the back for this accomplishment, because it\u2019s extraordinary \u2026 but we should be like, \u2018What\u2019s next? What are we going to do next?’\u201d he said. \u201cNow \u2026 we have seen this visual that we can do these extraordinary things.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also emphasized that pushing ourselves to achieve those big things should not come at the expense of remaining joyful.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had the time of our lives on this mission,\u201d Hansen said. \u201cIt was hard, it was challenging, it was dangerous. But it was the time our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen says his historic participation in NASA\u2019s Artemis II lunar mission is proof that Canada…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[58777,49,48,105501,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-609182","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-artemis-ii","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-jeremy-hansen","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}