Michael J. McKay is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

astronaut candidate. He was selected in the initial round of four

Canadian astronaut The Canadian Astronaut Corps is a unit of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) that selects, trains, and provides astronauts as crew members for U.S. and Russian space missions. The corps has four active members, able to serve on the International Spa ...

s in 1992, along with

Chris Hadfield Chris Austin Hadfield (born August 29, 1959) is a Canadian retired astronaut, engineer, fighter pilot, musician, and writer. As the first Canadian to perform extravehicular activity in outer space, he has flown two Space Shuttle missions and ...

Julie Payette Julie Payette (; born October 20, 1963) is a Canadian engineer, scientist and former astronaut who served from 2017 to 2021 as Governor General of Canada, the List of governors general of Canada, 29th since Canadian Confederation. Payette holds ...

, and

Dafydd Williams Dafydd "David" Rhys Williams (born May 16, 1954) is a Canadian physician, public speaker, author and retired CSA astronaut. Williams was a mission specialist on two Space Shuttle missions. His first spaceflight, STS-90 in 1998, was a 16-day mi ...

. He worked as an engineer payload specialist on ground, but did not eventually fly into space.

Astronaut career

As one of over 5,300 applicants, and a then-

Canadian Armed Forces The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF; , FAC) are the unified Military, military forces of Canada, including sea, land, and air commands referred to as the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force. Under the ''National Defenc ...

Aeronautical Engineer with the rank of captain, he was selected in 1992 for Space Team Canada of the

Canadian Space Agency The Canadian Space Agency (CSA; ) is the national space agency of Canada, established in 1990 by the ''Canadian Space Agency Act''. The President of the Canadian Space Agency, president is Lisa Campbell (civil servant), Lisa Campbell, who took ...

(CSA). McKay was selected as an alternate after Robert Stewart left the Canadian Space Agency program to accept a position at the

University of Calgary {{Infobox university , name = University of Calgary , image = University of Calgary coat of arms without motto scroll.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms , former ...

. He was one of the four original members in the Canadian Astronaut Program (CAP). He resigned from the Astronaut Corps in early 1995 for medical reasons, but remained in the employment of CAP as an engineer. He worked on the

Advanced Space Vision System The Advanced Space Vision System (also known as the Space Vision System or SVS) is a computer vision system designed primarily for International Space Station (ISS) assembly. The system uses regular 2D cameras in the Space Shuttle bay, on the Can ...

and the robotic arms for the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

, nicknamed

Canadarm Canadarm or Canadarm1 (officially Shuttle Remote Manipulator System or SRMS, also SSRMS) is a series of robotic arms that were used on the Space Shuttle orbiters to deploy, manoeuvre, and capture payloads. After the Space Shuttle ''Columbia' ...

. The first

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

mission to include his work was the Space Vision System support to the

Wake Shield Facility Wake or The Wake may refer to: Culture *Wake (ceremony), a ritual which takes place during some funeral ceremonies *Wakes week, an English holiday tradition * Parish Wake, another name of the Welsh ', the fairs held on the local parish's patron s ...

, a free flying payload that was released from

Space Shuttle Discovery Space Shuttle ''Discovery'' (Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-103) is a retired American Space Shuttle orbiter. The spaceplane was one of the Space Shuttle orbiter, orbiters from NASA's Space Shuttle program and the third of five fully opera ...

STS-60 STS-60 was the first mission of the U.S./Russian Shuttle-Mir Program, and the 18th flight of Discovery, in which Sergei K. Krikalev became the first Russian cosmonaut to fly aboard a Space Shuttle. The mission used NASA Space Shuttle ''Disc ...

. Shortly thereafter, in February 1994, now-Major McKay was one of four astronauts who participated in the Canadian Astronaut Program Space Unit Life Simulation (CAPSULS), a 7-day simulated space mission which was preceded by several weeks of intensive training. In early 1995, Major McKay resigned from the Astronaut Corps for medical reasons. He remained in the employment of CAP as an engineer and was actively involved in mission support activities. He was appointed Project Manager for the Canadian Space Vision System and was the Mission Manager for the

STS-85 STS-85 was the 23rd flight of Space Shuttle ''Discovery'' that performed multiple space science packages. It was launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 7 August 1997. The main STS-85 payloads included the satellite known as Cryogenic ...

mission, also Shuttle Discovery. Fellow Canadian

Bjarni Tryggvason Bjarni Valdimar Tryggvason (September 21, 1945 – April 5, 2022) was an Icelandic-born Canadian engineer and a NRC/ CSA astronaut. He served as a Payload Specialist on Space Shuttle mission STS-85 in 1997, a nearly 12-day mission to study cha ...

flew on STS-85 as a Payload Specialist. In October 1997, McKay left CSA to return to active military service.

Military career

Michael McKay joined the Canadian Armed Forces in 1981 and attended Royal Military College in Kingston. He graduated in 1985 with a four-year Bachelor of Science degree. From 1986 to 1987, he worked as a Software Support Officer with Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering at

CFB Cold Lake Canadian Forces Base Cold Lake , abbreviated as CFB Cold Lake, is a Canadian Forces Base in the City of Cold Lake, Alberta. The facility is operated as an air force base by the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and is approximately south of the ...

, Alberta. In 1987, he was named Mechanical Support Officer in command of 145 people and was later appointed to the position of

Canadair CF-5 The Canadair CF-5 (officially designated the CF-116 Freedom Fighter) is a Canadian licensed-built Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter. It is a light, supersonic aircraft, supersonic, twin engine, daylight air superiority fighter primarily for the Cana ...

Repair Officer, responsible for the periodic inspection of the Canadair CF-5 fleet, a position which he held until 1991. After completing his postgraduate degree in 1991, also from Royal Military College, Major McKay was a lecturer with the College Militaire de Saint-Jean. In October 1997, Major McKay left

to return to active military service with the Directorate of Space Development within the

National Defence Headquarters National Defence Headquarters (NDHQ) ( French: ''Quartiers généraux de la Défense nationale'' (''QGDN'')) was created through the integration of the Canadian Armed Forces Headquarters (CAF HQ) with the civilian Department of National Defence ...

in Ottawa. There he was responsible for the human resource and education development for the Canadian Armed Forces Military Space Programme.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mckay, Michael Canadian astronauts Royal Military College of Canada alumni Royal Canadian Air Force officers Canadian aviators Year of birth missing (living people) Living people