A rchive Date
[ 26-06-2000 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[Julie Payette: Above and beyond
Curly-haired Canuck follows her childhood dream to travel into space
By SARAH GREEN - Toronto Sun
Saturday, May 29, 1999
It was watching the 1970s Apollo missions as a girl in suburban Montreal that 10-year-old Julie Payette first dreamed of becoming an astronaut. Payette - fascinated by astronauts, their space suits and the bumpy travel in lunar vehicles - grew up devouring space magazines and even pinned up a picture of astronaut Neil Armstrong in her bedroom.
"I wanted to be like them," Payette said recently. "I wanted to be an astronaut."
On a Cape Canaveral launch pad Thursday - amid a thick haze of smoke and the deafening rumble of the engines on the space shuttle Discovery - Payette, now 35, realized her childhood dream.
"I think people had tears in their eyes," said Payette's friend Suzanne Fortier, vice-principal of research at Queen's University, who was among 350 Canadians in Florida for the launch. "It's just extraordinary. You have a sense not only of a vessel taking off, but ... you know there are people in there and Julie is in there. It's taking off with all her work and her dreams."
The liftoff also propelled Payette into history. She's the eighth Canadian in space, the second Canadian woman and the first astronaut from this country to board the International Space Station, floating some 400 km above the Earth. She's also the youngest Canadian astronaut.
Dubbed Ms Fix-It for the 10-day mission, Payette will also be the choreographer of a planned six-hour space walk to transfer equipment and supplies to the station.
But it is not solely Payette's place in history that has turned the curly-haired Montreal native into the Discovery mission's media darling, prompting one French-language newspaper to proclaim Thursday as "Le Jour J de Julie."
The married Payette speaks six languages, including Russian, and over the years the electrical engineer has built an impressive resume in her lifelong drive to be an astronaut.
She is also a gifted singer and musician, a triathlete and skier, a scuba diver and licensed pilot, trained to take a Tutor plane - used by the famed Snowbirds - on solo flights.
Sister Yolande Perrault taught Payette to speak French during one of the three years the future astronaut was a student at College Regina-Assumpta in Montreal in the 1970s.
Perrault remembered the young Payette as an exceptional and diligent student, who always finished her homework and was very active in school life.
"It's a natural gift. She was talented in everything, not only in science but in arts as well," Perrault said. "She was very nice to everyone, very outgoing ... She was charming. She had a good character, she was always joyful."
Perrault awoke early on Thursday to watch the sunrise launch and throughout the school that day, the air was thick with excitement. TVs replayed the picture-perfect take-off for students, who pass a signed poster of Payette every day in the hall.
"I was very moved. I was very relieved when I saw everything went well," Perrault said. "I was very happy for her because I knew she was achieving her dream.
After secondary school, Payette crossed the ocean to attend the International College of the Atlantic in South Wales and returned home to graduate with a bachelor of engineering from McGill in 1986 and a master of applied sciences at U of T in 1990.
Engineering professor Ursula Franklin said she has "very warm memories" of Payette's years at Massey College.
"The sort of person you'd love to invite to the cottage for the weekend," Franklin said of Payette. "We knew whatever she chose to do, she would do well ... She has a lot of life ahead of her. This is a very major achievement, but I'm sure this isn't going to be her defining moment."
In 1992, Payette, who was then working for Bell-Northern Research in Montreal, spotted a newspaper ad calling for new recruits to the Canadian Space Agency.
During one interview as the agency whittled down its list of 5,300 applicants, Payette was asked how she could demonstrate her ability to work in a team.
"She said she's in a number of choirs. 'You have to listen to what the others do. That is really exquisite teamwork,'" Franklin said. "I remember thinking there may not be another astronaut on the question of teamwork who will cite music."
In June 1992, Payette was officially named as one of four astronauts chosen by the space agency, as much for her personality as her impressive credentials.
"She's extremely motivated. She's extremely dynamic. She communicates her passion for space in a brilliant manner," Canadian Space Agency spokesman Stephane Corbin said. "It is very inspiring to youth."
Determined pilot
As part of her astronaut training, which she completed last year, Payette went to the flying instructor school at CFB Moose Jaw in 1996.
Payette, who returns to Saskatchewan for one or two weeks at a time for followup sessions, proved to be a determined pilot, eager to accumulate as many flights as possible.
"Her main purpose (when she's there) is to fly," said Maj. Rob Thorneycroft, commandant of the flying instructor school. "She'd be happy with (going up) four times, satisfied with three and kind of ticked off with only two."
What stood out to Thorneycroft - who described Payette as "the hottest thing going with the launch" - was her absolute determination to excel at flying and everything else.
When she wasn't able to perform a manoeuvre as smoothly as one of her instructors - who have logged thousands of hours as opposed to Payette's hundreds - Thorneycroft said she would often get frustrated.
"She would actually get mad at herself in the airplane. She would be berating herself. She was awfully hard on herself," Thorneycroft said. "She's very personable. The one thing that gets you is she does have a lot of drive."
-- With Files From Laura Bobak and CP
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 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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