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MONTREAL – Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques said most of his preparation as he prepared to depart on December 20 for a visit to the International Space Station will ensure his family is ready to face at his six months of absence.
"Two years are too late to think about it, but a few months later, you start thinking:" I have been leaving for a long time in a very distant place, "he told a press conference at the Johnson on Thursday. Space Center in Houston.
"I'd better make sure everything is in order in my life before doing it and that my family is fine."
Saint-Jacques, 48 (he will be 49 at the space station on January 6), is married to a doctor and has three children: boys aged seven and five and a two-year-old girl.
In a subsequent interview with the Canadian Press, Saint-Jacques stated that he was impressed by his children's understanding.
"We spent a lot of time explaining to them on a level that they can grasp the fact that the Earth is a planet in space, that things are in orbit around (and) that there is this house in the sky where daddy is gonna go, "he said.
Saint-Jacques added that his children also talked to people when they were at the space station.
"The other day, I passed by those big satellite dishes we have at the Johnson Space Center and my five-year-old son remarked," Hey, that's how we talk to your friends in the sky, "was he added, "I said.
Within three months of his space trip, Saint-Jacques has finished learning the technical aspects of his training.
"We know how to perform our tasks, operate machines, space suits, the robotic robot Canadarm2 (and) the Soyuz," he said.
Saint-Jacques and his two colleagues from space – American astronaut Anne McClain and Russian Oleg Kononenko – enter the learning phase of the scientific experiments they will perform.
"We are learning to become useful, if you will, to the scientists of the planet who have prepared all the experiments for us on board," he said, adding that these experiences will also be the subject of several experiments.
The three will take off in a Soyuz spacecraft from the orbiting space laboratory in Kazakhstan.
This will be the first spaceflight for Saint-Jacques and McClain, while Kononenko will make his fourth trip to the station.
Saint-Jacques, the ninth Canadian to travel in space, will also serve as a co-pilot in the space capsule and, because of his medical training, will be the crew doctor aboard the space station during the six months of his stay.
Prior to joining the space program, he practiced medicine in an Inuit community far from Hudson Bay.
The last Canadian to visit the orbiting space lab was Chris Hadfield, who made his five-month stay in 2013.
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