Canada’s next man in space doesn’t have his official liftoff date until the end of this year, but David Saint-Jacques says he’s ready if called into action in the coming weeks.
Saint-Jacques is serving as a backup to European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst, who is part of a three-person team scheduled to launch from Kazhakstan on June 6.
A backup crew being pressed into duty on short notice has never happened.
Saint-Jacques tells The Canadian Press he is relishing his future stay aboard the International Space Station after several years of training.
The Canadian astronaut is scheduled to launch aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on Dec. 20 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and remain on the station until June 2019.
The 48-year-old engineer
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