Jason Leuschen, who is originally from B.C. and currently resides in Ottawa, is a pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force. He completed an undergraduate degree in engineering at the U of S in 2000 and, after growing up on a farm near Bruno, Sask., cites the picturesque prairie sky as inspiration for his astral adventure.
"I fell in love with the sky growing up on a farm in The Land of The Living Skies," he told the (CSA). "Most days you were treated to an inspiring dawn, which would only be topped by the sunset that followed. Evenings in the field, without an artificial light in sight, I was held in rapture by the Milky Way, the northern lights and the moon."
Leuschen will find out this summer if he will join Canada’s astronaut corps.