NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced Hansen and three U.S. astronauts—commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and Hansen’s fellow mission specialist Christina Hammock Koch—in a morning news conference in Houston. Hansen has been in the astronaut corps since the Canadian Space Agency selected him in 2009 but has not been to space; each of the others has been once before. (The Logic)

Talking point: The Artemis II mission, tentatively planned for late 2024, is to circle the moon and return to Earth, making Hansen the first Canadian to orbit the moon. An uncrewed craft did the circuit in the Artemis I mission last year; Artemis III, in 2025, is to land the first people on Earth’s biggest satellite since the Apollo program ended in 1972. Canada has a seat on the Artemis II flight in exchange for contributing a new Canadarm to the Lunar Gateway space station, which is meant to facilitate future moon landings and, eventually, a lasting human presence on the surface. (Next stop after that: Mars.) A $1.2-billion commitment to building a new lunar utility vehicle in the Liberals’ federal budget last week is meant to make the case for a Canadian to set foot on the moon soon.