R is for Robert Thirsk

I'm super excited to be testing my blogging stamina by taking part in the A-Z Blogging Challenge. Started by the awesome Arlee Bird, the challenge is to write a post every day of the month (except Sundays) based on the appropriate letter for the day. Sound confusing? Stick with me throughout April and you'll get it. My theme is: Things that inspire me.

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Last week, former Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk flew to Calgary for the launch of It’s a Blast!, the third book in an adventure series about me. He read a section of the book to a group of eager young readers – and I was absolutely mesmerized by every word. Robert Thirsk is one of the coolest people I have ever met.

He actually holds the Canadian record for the longest space flight (187 days, 20 hours) and the most time spent in space (204 days, 18 hours). Robert Thirsk was also the astronaut responsible for taking 250,000 canola seeds into space – what a great idea!

When Robert Thirsk came back to Earth, he sent the canola seeds, along with some seeds that hadn’t flown in space, to 2000 classrooms across the country. The program was called CanoLAB and the students conducted growth experiments to see if the seeds that had gone into space would grow faster than the ones that hadn’t.

You can read more about Robert Thirsk, the CanoLAB project and ME in It’s a Blast!

What one question would you ask an astronaut if you had the opportunity to meet one?

Gotta jet!

- Chase Superman Duffy