OTTAWA – Months after humble space pioneer Neil Armstrong took an iconic first step on the moon, a future Canadian astronaut breathed for the first time in Quebec City.
“Neil Armstrong and his adventures have always been a source of inspiration,” said David Saint-Jacques on Monday from Houston, where the 42-year-old Canadian continues NASA training for a possible future flight to the International Space Station.
“His legacy is Olympian,” said Saint-Jacques, who works at the Johnson Space Center, the same hub that housed the Apollo 11 program in the lead-up to the historic walkabout on Earth’s closest neighbour.
Canada’s first space traveller was also in awe over Armstrong’s accomplishment.
“In a sense the Apollo mission did plant a seed,” said Marc Garneau, who in 1984 rode the Challenger shuttle into space and is currently a Liberal MP in the House of Commons.
Speaking Monday from Montreal, Garneau was on a sailboat in the English Channel in the summer of 1969 and listened to Armstrong’s historic sentiment on the radio.
“Here I was in an old sailboat looking up at the moon,” said Garneau. “We both had extraordinary voyages that summer.”
Garneau later twice met Armstrong at astronaut gatherings.
“Not a man with a big ego,” said Garneau. “He was just that kind of a person.”
A native of St-Lambert, Que., Saint-Jacques entered the astronaut program in 2009 after working for years in Canada’s north as a medical doctor. He said Armstrong’s reputation as a humble and seemingly reluctant hero is an endearing image.
“Still to this day he is a model.”
Saint-Jacques, born almost six months after Armstrong’s moon walk, will soon leave the Robotics Technology Branch at the Johnson Space Center to spend time training in underground caves in Europe, mirroring the cramped quarters of space travel.
“It is very humbling to see the great successes of the people who came before, and realizing how much work it takes to get there,” said Saint-Jacques.
A private service for Armstrong is planned Friday in Cincinnati.
“One of the great benefits of the space program is self-awareness of our own planet and where we come from,” said Saint-Jacques. “We have dreams for the future, including Mars.”
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