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<\/p>\nMenopause expert Dr. Catherine Hansen, MD\u201996, is a Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry grad and spouse of Jeremy Hansen, the first Canadian astronaut to travel to the Moon.<\/p>\n
Western News\u00a0spoke to Hansen after her husband returned to Earth aboard the Artemis II mission, following a thrilling and emotional splashdown that she described as the scariest day of her life.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
From a rural Alberta hospital where she was the only OB\/GYN \u2013 on call 24 hours a day \u2013 to a new venture supporting women in midlife, Hansen\u2019s journey has taken her across continents, serving diverse populations and patients in many stages of life. She shared her family\u2019s approach to\u00a0maintaining\u00a0health amid a hectic pace of life and how she stays rooted to her core purpose of supporting women.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Western News: What was it like watching the launch of the Artemis II mission, watching your spouse rocket off this planet?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Catherine Hansen (CH):\u00a0It is hard to describe, knowing that person is going so far away when\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0only a 10-day mission.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0kind of like\u00a0a long business trip, but\u00a0400,000 kilometers. Although it felt quick,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0been decades in the making. Jeremy has been working and training at NASA for 17 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Dr. Catherine Hansen and her three children with astronaut Jeremy Hansen watch as the Artemis II mission launches. (Submitted)<\/p>\n
Becoming the first Canadian to\u00a0fly around the\u00a0Moon, to go farther than humans have gone, it really has been a long work in progress with many\u00a0ups and downs\u00a0along the way. Watching him launch in that rocket,\u00a0almost exactly\u00a0on schedule, was a complete shock \u2013 I think even to the people who knew what was happening. They were expecting it to be called off or delayed a little bit at any moment. But the engines lit and it started\u00a0lift\u00a0off. It was a very terrifying, but also\u00a0extremely\u00a0exciting and joy-filled moment to know that he was realizing the culmination of those many years of work and\u00a0all of\u00a0his childhood dreams.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Those decades of work, leading to that huge moment \u2013 what has this experience been like for your family?\u00a0<\/p>\n
CH:\u00a0There are hundreds of thousands of people who have touched this mission directly and indirectly. The hope and dream\u00a0has\u00a0always been that everyone sees a part of themselves in\u00a0this, and\u00a0knows that they too can\u00a0accomplish\u00a0big things.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It makes me, and our grown children, feel exceptionally proud, but we also feel a level of responsibility for sharing the inspiration and motivation of this mission and the people who have contributed to the science, technology,\u00a0engineering\u00a0and the artistry involved. We feel part of something that we hope will continue to inspire the nation and the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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What was going through your mind during the splashdown?\u00a0<\/p>\n
CH:\u00a0That was the scariest day of my life.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The end of the mission would\u00a0ultimately mean\u00a0that we got him back safely. That was never\u00a0a given\u00a0throughout all of this. The splashdown was the final moment \u2013 after they had launched successfully, inspired the\u00a0world\u00a0and we even got to talk with him a couple of times during the mission \u2013 so it was very, very emotional for me. I was just praying that they would come out of\u00a0that six minutes\u00a0of loss of signal, that we would hear them again, the vehicle would be intact, the chutes would\u00a0fill\u00a0and they would splash down in the ocean as planned.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
You\u2019re a proud Schulich Medicine & Dentistry grad, tell us about your own journey.\u00a0<\/p>\n
CH:\u00a0I was at Western from 1992 to 1996 \u2013 this is our 30th anniversary, which is hard to believe.\u00a0We had an absolutely exceptional class and made incredible memories.\u00a0I still have friends from those years. Beyond that, I moved into a residency for OB\/GYN at McMaster. I went back to my\u00a0hometown, but\u00a0remained connected to the London area. Then, I chose to do a\u00a0master\u2019s of public health\u00a0at Johns Hopkins because I wanted to take a more global perspective on international women\u2019s health. I went to Africa for\u00a0a short time\u00a0during my residency.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then I started doing locums (temporary physician roles) in southwestern Ontario, including St. Thomas, Owen Sound, all over small towns. After I met Jeremy, he took me to rural Alberta, Cold Lake, which is home to one of Canada\u2019s fighter bases. I went up there as a solo OB\/GYN for eight years, 24\/7 on call. We had three kids under\u00a018 months\u00a0while Jeremy traveled as a fighter pilot for the Royal Canadian Air Force and I covered call for the hospital. Everything high-risk had to go to Edmonton, to our tertiary care centre \u2013 and usually by fixed-wing\u00a0aircraft.\u00a0So\u00a0it was\u00a0a very interesting\u00a0career for me to follow him there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When he was recruited to the astronaut corps, we came down to Houston. I spent 10 years as an assistant clinical professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch, where I put\u00a0all of\u00a0my academic work from Western to\u00a0good use. I did some research as well as a lot of residency teaching and OB\/GYN practice. Then I moved into a bit of private practice and then onto women\u2019s empowerment, wellness\u00a0work\u00a0and speaking.\u00a0<\/p>\n