In 2013, Hansen served as a cavenaut in the
European Space Agency's CAVES training programme in
Sardinia, alongside
Satoshi Furukawa,
Michael Barratt,
Jack Fischer,
Aleksei Ovchinin, and
Paolo Nespoli. On June 10, 2014, NASA announced that Hansen would take part in the
NEEMO 19 undersea exploration mission as an
aquanaut aboard the
Aquarius underwater laboratory. The mission began on September 7, 2014, and lasted seven days.
Artemis II window early in the
Artemis II lunar flyby On April 3, 2023, Hansen was announced as the first Canadian to travel to the vicinity of the Moon, as part of the
Artemis II mission. On April 1, 2026, he launched as a mission specialist of Artemis II and flew around the Moon on April 6 before returning to earth via
splashdown in the
Pacific Ocean on April 10. He became the first non‑American astronaut to travel beyond
low Earth orbit and the first to journey to the vicinity of the Moon. He is also, along with the other Artemis II crew members, among the humans who have travelled the farthest from Earth; as of 2026, he is also the Canadian to have traveled farthest from Earth. == Personal life ==