Canadian astronaut Dr. Robert Thirsk is making a special visit to the Manitoba Museum on Thursday to return an Arctic Discoveries Medal. Thirsk included the medal on his journey to the International Space Station last year and will return it during a presentation to the museum’s CEO Claudette Leclerc.
Thirsk will also share his exciting experiences from space with a 20 minute video and live narration, followed by taking questions from the public.
“This event is significant because the artifact is a medal that was given out to explorers of a bygone age, and now it has being carried into space by the newest generation of Canadian explorers,” said Scott Young, Manager of Science Communications and Visitor Experiences. “This medal has become our most-travelled artifact, orbiting the Earth 3,000 times at a speed of nearly 28,000 km/hour. An object of historical importance from our collection has been part of a historic Canadian mission of exploration.”
After blasting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in a Russian Soyuz Rocket on May 27 last year, the artifact visited the International Space Station for six months.
The one-hour event begins at 10 a.m. on May 27.
