In a full circle moment, Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen delivered the keynote speech at St. Joseph\u2019s Health Care Foundation\u2019s Tribute Dinner at RBC Place London on Wednesday. Hansen, who was born at St. Joseph\u2019s, talked about his historic trip on the Artemis II mission that travelled around the Moon in April and how it is a sign of hope for humanity. Free Press reporter Brian Williams caught up with Hansen before the dinner.<\/p>\n
Q: What was it like to look back at Earth from space?<\/p>\n
A: I guess it\u2019s awe. You know, (I) really look for the better word, but there really isn\u2019t one. Awe sort of represents this sentiment that you have of you\u2019re in reverence to it, and you\u2019re just kind of blown away by it . . . The first time I looked out the window, I saw the Indian Ocean. . . The next time I looked out the window was Australia, and that was such a such red colour. . . I saw all of North America, and because we were already getting really far away from the planet, and so that I can still see sort of like Hudson Bay, that carveout, just like we\u2019re used to seeing it on a map, sitting there and all of Canada below and around it, it\u2019s just absolute awe.<\/p>\n
Q: What\u2019s more nerve-racking: space travel, or public speaking at an event like this?<\/p>\n
A: I don\u2019t really get nervous anymore, but I definitely used to, so I\u2019m not nervous tonight. But I also wasn\u2019t nervous on the launch pad or re-entry really, and it\u2019s not a bravado thing. Normally you would, but I think you\u2019re so prepared for those acute, high-risk moments. So much training, you\u2019re sort of in this different mental state, and one where really the best thing you can do is be relaxed and be attentive, and that made it really fun for me to enjoy the launch, like I really remember it. I wasn\u2019t sort of hanging on by the edge of my fingertips. I was really present. I was listening and paying attention (to) all the feels, and (was) very much at peace with that moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a full circle moment, Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen delivered the keynote speech at St. Joseph\u2019s Health Care…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":934272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[320389,49,48,315523,311860,66,306],"class_list":["post-934271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-320389","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-category-london-news","tag-london-free-press","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934271","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=934271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/934272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=934271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=934271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=934271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}