Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen answers Calgary student’s question from space

Jackson Sullivan asks Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen a question during a communication window with the crew from NASA's historic Artemis II mission. (YouTube/Canadian Space Agency)

A young Calgary student had an out-of-this-world experience last week when his question was asked during a live communication window with the crew from NASA’s historic Artemis II mission.

The Canadian Space Agency had invited students to submit questions for astronaut Jeremy Hansen, which he then answered from aboard the Orion spacecraft on April 4.

A question from Jackson Sullivan, a Grade 4 student at Jennie Elliott School, was selected to be asked – while a question from his classmate Ben would serve as backup.

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Jackson’s teacher, Jamie Popowich, says the opportunity came about thanks to a week of science school at the Telus Spark, thanks to the Campus Calgary/Open Minds program.

“Because of a connection that the science school had with the Canadian Space Agency, our class was given an opportunity to ask questions of Jeremy Hansen,” Popowich explained.

“All the kids wrote questions, and they submitted them to the Canadian Space Agency, and they chose Jackson and Ben – and asked us to video them saying their question.”

Due to limited time, only Jackson’s question was played for the crew, but the Calgary Board of Education said in a social media post that both students’ questions “remained an important part of the project and a source of pride.”

Jackson’s question was: “How did you get to be on the Artemis II mission?”

“Jeremy and I were selected as astronauts together back in 2009,” said fellow astronaut Reid Wiseman. “He was a member, obviously, of the Canadian Space Agency and I was a member of NASA.

“When Jeremy interviewed to be an astronaut, our Chief Astronaut Peggy Woodsen was on the board – and Peggy came back from that interview and said, ‘If Canada doesn’t hire Jeremy, NASA will hire Jeremy’ – he did that well.”

“I think if you go through Jeremy’s life, he grew up a very inquisitive kid, he had huge dreams. He saw a picture of Neil Armstrong in an encyclopedia a long time ago – walking on the moon – and it just sparked his curiosity and his imagination,” Wiseman added.

“He always tells people that the most important thing when you have a dream and an aspiration is that you tell people – you talk about that. Some people may not believe you can do it, but you know you can do it. The more you talk about, the more people will begin to believe you can make your dreams come true – and that is exactly what Jeremy did.”

Speaking to CTV News, Jackson said it was a moment he’ll remember forever.

Parents Jimmy Sullivan and Francesca Hartley said it was a thrilling interaction.

“He was excited – he kept jumping around the room. We had to call his grandmother, make sure she saw it,” Sullivan said.

“He kept looking [up the video] on YouTube and making sure that everybody saw it,” Hartley added.

The backup question from Jackson’s classmate Ben was, “What is your role on Artemis 2?”