It’s Old News: Bringing Canada to new heights and atmospheres
By MEDICINE HAT NEWS on October 2, 2025.
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A little over 100 years after becoming a country, Canada reached space.
Canadian Marc Garneau became the nation’s first astronaut on Oct. 4, 1984 when he soared into space alongside six other astronauts aboard the U.S. shuttle Columbia.
The shuttle left the Kennedy Space Center 43 milliseconds before the scheduled liftoff time of 5:03 a.m. MST. The Quebec City-born Garneau naval commander, who died June 4 at the age of 76, orbited the Earth aboard the Challenger shuttle every 90 minutes over eight days before returning to Earth on Oct. 14 at Cape Canaveral in Florida.
The trip was made possible by the National Research Council of Canada’s creation of the Canadian Astronaut Program in 1983, now run by the Canadian Space Agency.
Since the first recruitment in 1983, a total of 14 Canadians ave completed their astronaut training and nine have completed missions to space. Roberta Bondar was among the first group recruited in ’83 and became the first Canadian woman in space when she flew aboard the U.S. shuttle Discovery in 1992. Steve MacLean became the third Canadian in space, reaching orbit in 1992. He travelled to space again in 2006 where he became the first Canadian to operate Canadarm2, a remote-controlled mechanical arm, also known as the Shuttle Remote Manipulator System.
Chris Hadfield served three space missions, operating the first Canadarm and also became the first Canadian to perform a spacewalk. In the second half of his five-month space assignment in 2012, he served as the commander of the International Space Station, the first Canadian to hold the position.
Robert Thirsk had two missions to space, with his second, coming in 2009, saw him launched to the ISS for six months, becoming the first Canadian to take part in a long-duration mission.
Bjarni Tryggvason was also admitted to the Canadian Astronaut Program in 1983, serving as a payload specialist aboard the Discovery shuttle in 1997.
Dave Williams of Saskatoon flew two missions to space, orbiting Earth 256 times in 1998 and travelling again in 2007.
Julie Payette served on two space missions in 1999 and 2009, spending over 611 hours in space. She reached the ISS in ’99, becoming the first Canadian woman to do so.
David Saint-Jacques was aboard the ISS for 204 days in 2018-19, the longest space mission of any Canadian astronaut.
Three Canadians have made it to space as tourists. Guy Laliberté, the first Canadian space tourist, flew to the ISS in 2009. Actor William Shatner followed his role as Captain Kirk in the original Star Trek television series, reaching space in 2021. Mark Pathy joined the AX-1 mission in 2022, travelling alongside three others to the ISS.
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