Julie Payette

Julie Payette is a Canadian engineer and former astronaut who was selected by the Canadian Space Agency in June 1992 from a pool of 5,330 applicants and later joined NASA Astronaut Group 16 in 1996. She flew two Space Shuttle missions, STS-96 in 1999, during which she performed the first manual docking of a shuttle to the International Space Station and became the first Canadian to board the station, and STS-127 in 2009, when she and fellow Canadian Robert Thirsk met in orbit, the first time two Canadians had been in space together. She logged more than 25 days in space, served as CSA chief astronaut from 2000 to 2007, and later became Canada's 29th Governor General from 2017 to 2021, resigning after a workplace review found she had mistreated staff.