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FIRST READING: Why a Canadian, of all people, is on Trump's moon rocket

NASA traded a seat on a moon mission for a robot arm (that they now don't need)

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FIRST READING: Why a Canadian, of all people, is on Trump's moon rocket Back to video

When a 33-year-old Jeremy Hansen was first selected as one of two Canadian astronauts in 2009, it couldn’t have come at a bleaker time for human space exploration.

The space shuttle — the only vehicle that had ever carried Canadians into space — was lurching towards retirement, and NASA had no clear plans for a replacement.

The International Space Station was approaching the end of a lifespan that had only been budgeted at 15 years.

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SpaceX was an obscure California startup that had launched precisely one rocket that hadn’t blown up. Teething issues with the company were so overwhelming that company founder Elon........

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