Canadian fighter pilot and physicist Jeremy Hansen will soon become the first non-American to travel around the moon. The 50-year-old is part of the Artemis II mission — making his space debut with NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman as his crew members. NASA has already begun fueling its rocket for the first manned lunar trip in more than half a century and the trip is expected to last around 10 days.

“Maybe I’m naive, but I don’t feel a lot of personal pressure…When I walk out and I look at the moon now, it looks and feels a little bit farther than it used to be. I just understand in the details how much harder it is than I thought it was watching videos of it,” AP news quoted Hansen as saying.

The Canadian began his flying career at the young age of 12 after  joining 614 Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron in Ontario. He earned his Air Cadet glider pilot wings at the age of 16 and secured a private pilot license the next year. He was eventually accepted into the Royal Military College Saint-Jean in Quebec.

Colonel Hansen had completed his CF-18 Fighter Pilot Training in 2003 and served until he was selected as an astronaut by the Canadian Space Agency in 2009. His was part of a 2020 agreement between NASA and the Canadian Space Agency and Hansen was named to the Artemis crew in 2023.

“It was the result of decades of contribution and strategic ⁠investment on our part that led to this participation,” ⁠said Mathieu Caron — the head of the CSA astronaut office.

“Colonel Hansen is married with three children. He enjoys sailboat cruising and racing, rock climbing and mountain biking,” his NASA profile adds.

Despite his relaxed approach to the mission, Hansen told AP that he was keenly aware of the sheer effort it took to send men to the moon during Apollo. He has also taken a pragmatic approach to the looming dangers of space travel.

“The most likely outcome is that we will come back safe. There’s a chance we won’t, and you will be able to move through life even if that happens,” he has reportedly assured his college-aged son and twin daughters.