Seems lonely.
Yes, the Artemis II mission (or more specifically the Orion space capsule) made its lap around the far side of the moon yesterday and broke the old record set by the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission back in 1970.
The crew was the very picture of diversity. They had a tall person, a short person. A boy person and a girl person. A black person and ... a Canadian. Personally, I think the only reason they didn't have a paraplegic person on board was that the rest of the astronauts would be embarrassed by how well someone who uses their hands to get around would perform. Make them all look bad.
But I think Canada has been getting shortchanged here.
"What are you talking about Pilot, Hansen is the first non-American to leave low-Earth orbit."
Sure, yes. We're all very grateful for that. But like.
Why don't we get a cool name for our space-farers?
Chinese space-travellers are called Taikonauts. Those who have left Earth from Russia/USSR have been called Cosmonauts. I even found that France has their own name for zero-g wanderers: spationaut.
So why can't Canadians have our own cool name? I mean, we have an entire astronaut corps, and we've sent 9 people to space a total of 17 times.
Well, as with anything in this world, and consistent with this blog far overstepping it's reach in trying to change the world, I've got a proposal.
Espanaut.
Reflecting Canada's bilinguality I grabbed the French word for space, "espace," which really has the English word for space in there as well. "Space".
I also considered Siderialnaut, because Siderial comes from Latin but also is a word still used in English and French. But sidereal more describes the stars and really deep space. Maybe we can use that one when we send the first Canadian to Wolf 359.
Maybe it's all a wasted discussion, though. Once the Cheeto Benito goes through with his annexation of Canada, they'll all become astronauts again anyway.
On a separate note, but still involving Canada and space, a comedian at open mic last night pointed out that the entire Apollo program and 50-year absence from the moon have happened since the last time that the Toronto Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup. They won it in 1967, the first trip around the moon was 1968, the first landing in 1969 and the last mission in 1972. And we just flew past again now in 2026.
The crux of the joke was that Jeremy Hansen was given the chance to either join a Stanley Cup-winning Toronto Maple Leafs or to be the first Canadian to go to the moon, and he decided to go with the one that had an actual chance of happening.
Oof.
The crux of the joke was that Jeremy Hansen was given the chance to either join a Stanley Cup-winning Toronto Maple Leafs or to be the first Canadian to go to the moon, and he decided to go with the one that had an actual chance of happening.
Oof.
