Advice for aspiring astronauts – Questions and answers with David Saint-Jacques live from space

Uploaded on July 26, 2019

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Advice for aspiring astronauts – Questions and answers with David Saint-Jacques live from space

2019-07-26 - During a videoconference, Canadian Space Agency astronaut David Saint-Jacques answers the following question from a social media follower:

Do you have any advice for aspiring astronauts or parents with kids that love space and want to become astronauts? (Credits: Canadian Space Agency, NASA)

Paola: Do you have any advice for aspiring astronauts or parents with kids that love space and want to become astronauts?

David Saint-Jacques: Do something you absolutely love. Pick a field you absolutely love, because that’s the only way that you will find enough energy within your heart to become the best at it. That’s very, very important: to be an astronaut is to be excellent at whatever job you decide to do. And then if you’re doing something you love, well, even if you don’t become an astronaut, well, it’s not too bad; you’re doing something you love, right?

Other things that are important: you need to stay in good shape. You have to respect your body. You have to be careful what you eat. You need to be respectful of your health to become an astronaut.

And finally, maybe most important, in terms of character and attitude, you have to become someone who is trustworthy. You have to become a responsible adult that people can give missions to. And that, it’s never too early to start as a young person, to develop the habit of making decisions, sticking with them and make sure that people can trust you.

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