Hansen grew up on a farm near Ailsa Craig, Ontario — a small town of roughly 1,000 people. He joined Air Cadets at age 12 and earned his private pilot licence at 17. He went on to earn an MSc in Physics from Royal Military College and became a Colonel in the Royal Canadian Air Force, flying CF-18 Hornets on NATO operations in Europe. Selected as a CSA astronaut in 2009, he is one of only two active Canadian astronauts.
Hansen led NASA's 2017 astronaut class through two years of training — the first non-American ever appointed to lead a NASA astronaut class. He has also participated in NEEMO 19 (underwater habitat mission simulating lunar surface operations) and ESA's CAVES 2013 (cave exploration training for isolated team dynamics).
When Orion leaves Earth's gravitational sphere of influence, Hansen becomes the first Canadian to travel beyond low Earth orbit and the first non-American on a lunar mission in history. At closest lunar approach, he will be one of the four farthest humans from Earth ever recorded.
Hansen's wife Catherine is a medical doctor. They have three teenagers. His mission patch features a maple leaf prominently alongside the lunar trajectory arc — a symbol of Canada's place in the history of human space exploration.
CSA astronaut Jenni Gibbons serves as Hansen's backup crew member and as a CAPCOM — the Capsule Communicator, whose voice is the primary link between Mission Control and the crew during the flight. Named alongside André Douglas as backup crew in 2024, Gibbons would have been the second Canadian to travel beyond low Earth orbit if called upon.
Canada's Artemis seat was earned through its unmatched robotics contributions to NASA programs:
The Canadian Space Agency established a temporary command centre at Cape Canaveral for the Artemis II mission, with teams co-located alongside NASA flight controllers at Johnson Space Center. The CSA publishes daily mission updates at asc-csa.gc.ca — offering a Canadian-perspective logbook of the flight, tracking Hansen's activities, health, and milestones throughout the 10 days.