Canada Sending Two Astronauts to Space in Next 10 Years

Canada has committed to flying two Canadian astronauts to space by 2024.

Industry Minister James Moore made the announcement on Tuesday in Ottawa, following in the footsteps of Canadian Commander Chris Hadfield’s historic mission working as Commander of the International Space Station (ISS).

Jeremy Hansen and David Saint-Jacques, Canada’s active astronauts, will be the ones to fly to space as a renewal of Canada’s participation in the ISS. With Tuesday’s announcement, Canada became the third country to extend its participation in the joint endeavour until 2024.

Immensely competent, hard-working, I wonder which spaceship David & Jeremy will fly - Soyuz, Dragon or Boeing's CST? pic.twitter.com/pGtymUkkjy

— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) June 2, 2015

"Chris Hadfield made Canadians proud when he became the first Canadian to walk in space and command the International Space Station,” said Moore. “Our government is committed to ensuring two more Canadians fly to space within the next decade. More importantly, it confirms a great future for Canada in space for years to come."

Moore also announced that the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) will be providing $10.5 million for continued technical support for Canadarm2, Dextre, and the mobile base on ISS. Canada is also extending its collaboration with NASA by two years to be part of the Mars Curiosity rover mission, as well as conducting four new Canadian science experiments aboard ISS in the fall on weightlessness and health issues from space travel.

Ticket to fly: by renewing our commitment to #ISS, both @astro_jeremy @astro_davids will fly by 2024. #CSAinspires pic.twitter.com/AMk82EaNGQ

— CanadianSpaceAgency (@csa_asc) June 2, 2015

One of the two Canadian astronauts will be guaranteed a flight to space by 2019, and the other will fly to space by 2024. The selection of which astronaut to go first will be discussed in the coming months.