The Canadian Space Agency announced on Wednesday it will send one of its astronauts outside of low-Earth orbit for the first time in the country’s history.
The Gateway Treaty, unveiled during a video press conference, is a joint agreement with the United States that will see one Canadian astronaut travel as part of Artemis, an 18-member team of space travelers that will conduct moon missions and build the infrastructure to travel to Mars.
The Canadian individual, who has yet to be named, will assist in a 2023 scheduled mission dubbed the Lunar Gateway project, with the intention to build a space station orbiting the moon that can act as a docking point for future missions into deep space.
Navdeep Bains, Canada’s minister of innovation, science, and industry, championed the news at a video conference following the announcement.
“All eyes will look to the sky as one of our astronauts becomes the first Canadian to travel around the moon,” Bains said. “Canada will join the U.S. on the first crewed mission to the moon since the Apollo missions. This will make Canada only the second country after the U.S. to have an astronaut in deep space.”
Canadian astronauts David Saint-Jacques, Jeremy Hansen, Josh Kutryk, and Jenni Sidey-Gibbons are most likely to be named the first Canadian to experience such a voyage.
“With today’s announcement, I think of the Apollo 8 image … Earth as seen from the moon’s orbit,” Bains said as all four astronauts flanked him during a conference announcing the mission. “As a Canadian, that fills me with pride. To think that the next time we see our home planet rising up over the edge of the moon, one of you four will be behind the camera.”
The trip, which will not include a moon landing, is a U.S.-led effort and is the first time a spaceship has left low-Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972.
There will be a number of Artemis missions, which are set to begin in 2021, leading up to moon exploration. In preparation for those missions, the astronauts will assist in the development of human landing systems and other space hardware and will participate in public engagements to explain the future missions.
