Medical doctor spent more time in space than any other Canadian
Robert Thirsk had impressive career before signing up for astronaut program
To mark Canada’s 150th birthday, we are counting down to Canada Day with profiles of 150 noteworthy British Columbians.
There are high-flying journalists and there’s this one. Robert Thirsk filed to The Calgary Sun — appropriately enough — from a space station 350 kilometres overhead, the first person to write for a newspaper from space for publication. Mind you, it’s hard to imagine the editor foolhardy enough to spike those stories. He also became the only person to receive a university degree in orbit. That ceremony wasn’t without difficulties, though. His convocation cape kept floating up in the weightless conditions to cover his face and had to be discarded.
That sense of fun, wonder and the desire to share whatever science turns up characterizes the Canadian astronaut who spent longer in weightless conditions than any other.
Thirsk was born in New Westminster on Aug. 17, 1953, the second of three children. His dad was in sales and the kids lived in small towns in B.C., Alberta and Manitoba while they were growing up. He went to Glenayre Elementary in Port Moody. Then the family settled in Calgary, where he finished high school, took an engineering degree from the University of Calgary, followed with a master’s in mechanical engineering at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and ended with a medical doctorate from McGill University in 1982. Oops, did we say finished? Sorry, he next earned an MBA from MIT’s famous Sloan School of Management.
His fascination with space began during a trip to the mall in 1968, he told the Calgary Herald’s Chris Nelson. Passing through Simpsons-Sears, he saw the first live images of the Earth beamed back from the Apollo 8 mission as the spacecraft orbited the moon. In 1982, working as a doctor in New Brunswick, he saw a newspaper ad. The Canadian Space Agency was looking for six people with academic backgrounds, a sense of adventure and certain personality traits — to serve as astronauts.
He got the job, and in 2009 spent 188 days in orbit on the International Space Station, conducting research and using robotics to maintain and repair the station. Since his return to Earth, he’s been involved in research, education, advocating for science, and is chancellor at the University of Calgary. He has won dozens of awards, has been appointed to the Order of Canada and the Order of B.C.
None of it went to his head. There are seven billion astronauts, he has pointed out. We just happen to have a planet-sized spaceship.