The four astronauts who flew in the recent Artemis II mission around the moon each invited a number of special guests to attend the launch.
Two of them, Reid Wiseman (mission commander) and Ontario-raised Jeremy Hansen, invited their old college roommates, plus a guest of their choice, to the event.
Jeremy Hansen’s roommate, long-time friend, co-conspirator in mischief, and special guest at the launch, hails from Deep River. His plus-one still lives here.
Trevor Judd (former roommate of Hansen at the Royal Military College of Canada), and his dad Ross were avid and amazed observers of the launch from a special viewing area on that beautiful, clear day.
In 1995, Trevor Judd met Jeremy Hansen at RMC. They graduated together.
Prior to starting at RMC, Trevor had passed a week-long assessment program for pilot training. Hansen was not actually originally slated for pilot training when he entered RMC.
At age five, Hansen had been taken to an air show and he fell in love with it, but until he met Trevor he somehow did not have the confidence to apply for pilot training.
Since Trevor had so recently passed pilot training assessment, he recognized a similar set of characteristics and skills in his new roommate, so he encouraged Hansen to try for it too.
“Trevor recognized in Jeremy his smarts – he had studied physics. He had done training as an air cadet and he knew that he loved flying, but somehow at that stage of his life he didn’t have the confidence to fulfill his dream,” explained Carole Judd, Ross’s wife and Trevor’s mom.
“Jeremy and Trevor really clicked,” said Carole.
“In the rookie phase at RMC, you’re not allowed to have phones. Trevor and Jeremy managed to get hold of a cell phone and hide it, thereby allowing them to keep in touch with their off-campus girlfriends.”
This was probably only one of the ways the two friends got into mischief together.
Talked into it by Trevor, Hansen switched from army training to pilot training. In 2009, Hansen first entered the astronaut training program.
Also in 2009, when Trevor was attached to the US Marines, he was in charge of the group responsible for air security for one of the shuttle launches to the International Space Station.
In 2019, Hansen was selected to be part of the Artemis program, and two years ago he was chosen to be one of the four astronauts to fly the mission.
Ross, who prior to being invited as Trevor’s plus-one, knew only generally about the Artemis (mostly because Trevor kept him informed) is now able to talk about it not only with enthusiasm but also with deeper insight due to his recent experience in Florida.
“The first day was just getting oriented, being given our badges and information packages,” he said.
“The second day was the wave-off,” Ross said. “The astronauts had come directly from Houston 48 hours before the launch, and they were in quarantine with their families.
“For the wave-off, all the invited guests stood on one side of a line, and all the astronauts and their families stood on the other.”
After that, the invited guests were given a detailed tour of the NASA facility as well as a close up of the launch area. In the afternoon, they attended a reception hosted by the Canadian Space Agency.
“A number of different dignitaries were there: the head of the Canadian Space Agency, and former astronauts,” he said.
“That was particularly interesting because it gave a sense that this was a very special collection of people.”
Ross was particularly interested in speaking to someone about the psychological and physical ramifications of being in space.
The next day was the launch.
“We went to a viewing area about 3 km from the launch site. We had a perfect view,” said Ross.
“The rocket took off. It’s amazing – the rocket is about 320 feet long, and once it was airborne the flame out the back was twice as long as the rocket.
“We were positioned right opposite the launch site, so when the rocket turned to go into space, the engines were blasting right back at us and we could feel the thrust. I thought, ‘Wow!’”
“I experienced it from here (in Deep River) with all the texts flowing back and forth, and all the pictures!” said Carole.
“We could see the separation of the booster rockets,” Ross went on.
“Once we knew they were in orbit, that’s step one. The next thing was 24 hours later: the separation and the direction of the Orion space capsule and the service module towards the moon.
“That’s a critical time because they have the opportunity if things are not working properly to return to earth. If everything’s fine, they head off.”
At the last minute, one day prior, the Judds’ second son Kevin, who had also known Hansen at RMC, decided suddenly to fly himself and his three kids to Florida to attend the launch.
Ross and Trevor were surprised, therefore, to receive news that they were also there, watching from a different vantage point.
“It was quite the reunion for our family!” Ross said.
The next day, the families of the astronauts held a reception.
“We had an opportunity to speak to Hansen’s parents and wife,” Ross said.
“I can’t tell you how many people down there, talking about him, recognize that he’s a very special person,” said Ross.
“He has some special interpersonal skills. He’s very humble.”
“He’s very spiritually grounded,” added Carole. “He was raised in a Christian family in Southern Ontario.”
Each astronaut commissioned a special patch to represent who they are and what space travel means to them. Hansen, who had spent time with the Indigenous people of Canada, realized that their values align with his own.
He therefore commissioned an Anishinaabe artist to design his patch with seven animals representing the seven sacred laws around the edges.
The closest Ross got to meeting Hansen was the wave-off and the family reception, but through Trevor’s stories and talking with others Ross is convinced that Hansen possesses a set of special and unusual characteristics and aptitudes, ones which Trevor clearly recognized all those years ago as his roommate.